History of Lacrosse

The Transformation of a Game: Lacrosse in America

There are many popular sports in the United States from basketball to baseball to football, but none has seen the astronomical growth that the sport of lacrosse has.   It is estimated that lacrosse is growing nationally at a rate of over 10 percent annually. Lacrosse is a composite of basketball, soccer and hockey.   In men's lacrosse it, also, adds the element of football.   Twenty years ago lacrosse was an East Coast sport played in the New England states, New York and Maryland with the players mostly being from boarding schools.   Now with more televised games at the college and professional level the sport has exploded in popularity.   Known as the oldest sport in North America with its roots from the Native American Indians, lacrosse, the fastest sport on two feet, has rapidly become the favorite sport in the United States.   Lacrosse is the most profound and historically rich of all competitions played in modern North America today.
Baggataway was an early form of lacrosse that was played by the Native Americans of the eastern part of North America.   “As early as the 1400's, the Iroquois, Huron, Algonquin, and other tribes were playing the game.   In its beginnings lacrosse, then called Baggataway, was a wide open game that was part religious and part military training”(Sportsknowhow 1).   Baggataway was a mental and physical release for players and spectators alike, healing those in need of care and preparing those going into combat.   It was used for religious purposes, settling inter-tribal disputes, and for training many warriors.   Sometimes referred as the fastest game on two feet, lacrosse is a combination of speed and hand-eye coordination.  
As preparation for war, Indian lacrosse could indeed get very competitive, as well as violent.   The name Lacrosse was given by early French settlers. Lacrosse is a comprehensive term for any game played with a ball and a curved crosse.   Native terminology tends to...