Lacrosse

               A bit of sports trivia that often stumps even the most knowledgeable sports “genius” has to do with a former football star and Hollywood actor. However, as prominent as Jim Brown was on the football field, he was often considered a better college player at Syracuse in another sport, lacrosse.

                Jim Brown was an All-American at Syracuse in lacrosse. In fact, after his days as a Syracuse Orangemen, he could have gone pro as a lacrosse player if he had the right opportunity. However, he didn’t, and the rest is history, so to speak.

                Nowadays, many colleges have lacrosse teams, and there is a professional lacrosse league, but most Americans are unaware of how the sport is played. Even more people wonder how the game actually got started. Well, a brief capsule of the sport will help.

                Lacrosse was started by Native American Indians. Its original name was stickball. The game was generally played first in the St. Lawrence Valley area by the Algonquian tribe, and followed by other tribes around the western Great Lakes. The early games were looked upon as major events, which took place over several days. The games were played over large areas, as much as a few miles. There were no set number of players, and sometimes even as many as a thousand or more players participated at a time. Early rules included that the ball was not to be touched by a player’s hand. There were no boundaries. Players raced to be the first to catch the ball once the game started. Deerskin balls filled with fur replaced wooden balls. Netting was made from deer sinews. Players used paint and charcoal to decorate their faces and bodies when they prepared for a game.

                The Native American Indians played lacrosse for a few reasons. It was not only a game played for recreation and religious reasons, but also to toughen young warriors for war.

                A French Jesuit, Jean de Brebeuf, wrote about the game being played in 1636 by the Huron Indians. He gave the game the name “lacrosse”. The game was introduced in Canada in 1834, and a Canadian dentist, Dr. William George Beers, founded the Montreal Lacrosse Club in 1856. Beers later drew up rules which included sharply reducing the number of players, as well as introducing a redesigned stick and a rubber ball.

                The popularity of lacrosse in Canada grew fast, and by 1860 lacrosse had become the country’s national game. In 1876 Queen Victoria watched a lacrosse game. In 1883 a touring Canadian lacrosse team, as well as a team composed of Iroquois Native Americans visited Scotland.

                The sport began being played in countries across the world, and as a result lacrosse was played in both the 1904 and 1908 Summer Olympics. Ironically, Canada won the gold medal in those Olympics.

                In 1967 the first men’s lacrosse world tournament was played in Toronto. This time the Mt. Washington (Maryland) Lacrosse Club won, representing the United States.  In 1971, the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Association was founded, and three years later the men’s International Lacrosse Foundation was started.

                In 2008, the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) was formed from the women’s and men’s international lacrosse associations. Its focus is to have lacrosse become an Olympic sport again.

                Of course, collectors have had their eye on lacrosse collectibles. In a 2011 Heritage Auction, a Canadian silver plated lacrosse trophy cup from 1881 sold for almost $3000. It had been part of the Malcolm S. Forbes collection, one of the world’s most renowned private collections. Heritage also auctioned a nearly complete “lacrosse series” card set from 1910 for $2629.

                A Peterboro lacrosse club medal from 1893 which was awarded to John Mein was sold at auction in February 2014 for almost $700 by Heritage, while a lacrosse stick from around 1900 sold for $444 in a June 2014 auction.

                It is apparent that the sport of lacrosse has still remained popular for hundreds of years. Although it probably will never reach the level of followers as other sports have, lacrosse has persevered and been played and enjoyed by people of all ages and nationalities, even Jim Brown.