What are the significant milestones in lacrosse history. How did the sport evolve over time. Who were the pioneering figures that shaped lacrosse. When did lacrosse become a recognized sport in North America. How has lacrosse contributed to diversity and inclusion in athletics.
The Origins of Lacrosse: From Native American Tradition to Modern Sport
Lacrosse, often referred to as America’s first sport, has a rich and complex history that spans centuries. Its roots can be traced back to the indigenous peoples of North America, who played early versions of the game for a variety of purposes, including spiritual rituals, conflict resolution, and physical conditioning.
The French explorers who encountered Native American tribes playing this stick-and-ball game in the 17th century gave it the name “lacrosse,” possibly derived from the French term for field hockey, “le jeu de la crosse.” Over time, the sport evolved and adapted, eventually becoming the fast-paced, athletic competition we know today.
What makes lacrosse unique among team sports?
Lacrosse combines elements of several popular sports, including basketball, soccer, and hockey. It requires a diverse set of skills, including hand-eye coordination, speed, agility, and strategic thinking. This combination of attributes has made lacrosse appealing to a wide range of athletes, regardless of size or physical build.
Pioneering Black Athletes in Lacrosse: Breaking Barriers and Setting Records
The history of lacrosse is intertwined with the struggle for racial equality and inclusion in sports. Several Black athletes have made significant contributions to the sport, paving the way for greater diversity and representation in lacrosse.
Who was the first known Black lacrosse player?
Albert F. Lewis is recognized as the first known Black lacrosse player. In 1888, he took the field as a goalie for the Cornwall Club and the Canadian national team. His participation was documented in a Montreal Gazette article from that year, marking a significant milestone in the sport’s history.
Other notable Black athletes who left their mark on lacrosse include:
- Jim Brown: Scored five goals in the first half of the 1957 USILA North-South Game before embarking on his legendary NFL career.
- Tina Sloan Green: The first Black player in U.S. women’s team history, touring with the team to Australia and New Zealand in 1969.
- Fred Opie: The first Black player in U.S. men’s team history, helping the team win a world championship in 1990.
- Kyle Harrison: The first Black player to win the prestigious Tewaaraton Award in 2005.
Milestones in Collegiate Lacrosse: Achievements and Breakthroughs
College lacrosse has been a crucial platform for the sport’s growth and development, with numerous historic moments shaping its trajectory.
How did Morgan State University impact lacrosse history?
On March 9, 1975, Morgan State University, a historically Black institution, made headlines by defeating the top-ranked Washington and Lee University in men’s lacrosse. This upset victory became the inspiration for the book “Ten Bears,” which chronicled the historic occasion. The success of the Morgan State program elevated several of its players to prominence in the lacrosse world, including Joe Fowlkes, who graced the cover of the NCAA Lacrosse Guide in 1978.
Other significant collegiate milestones include:
- Temple University winning the AIAW championship under coach Tina Sloan Green in 1982, the first of her three national championships.
- Syracuse’s Rodney Dumpson scoring the game-winning goal in the 1989 NCAA title game against Johns Hopkins.
- Virginia’s John Christmas scoring crucial goals in high-profile games, including the 2003 national championship.
Breaking Ground in Coaching: Diversity in Leadership Roles
As lacrosse continued to grow in popularity, opportunities for diverse voices in coaching and leadership positions began to emerge, albeit slowly.
Who was the first Black head coach in Division I men’s lacrosse?
Rick Sowell made history in the summer of 1999 when he became the first Black men’s head coach at the Division I level, taking the helm at Dartmouth College. This appointment marked a significant step forward in representation within the coaching ranks of collegiate lacrosse.
Other coaching milestones include:
- Brian Silcott becoming the first Black head coach in Major League Lacrosse history in 2006, leading the San Francisco Dragons.
- The first Division I women’s lacrosse game between two teams led by Black coaches, when Howard University (coached by Jessy Morgan) hosted Bryant University (coached by Karen Healy) in 2009.
International Achievements: Representing on the Global Stage
As lacrosse gained international recognition, Black athletes continued to make their mark on the world stage, contributing to the sport’s global growth and popularity.
How have Black athletes impacted international lacrosse competitions?
Black athletes have played crucial roles in international lacrosse competitions, representing their countries with distinction and helping to raise the sport’s profile worldwide. Some notable achievements include:
- Cherie Greer Brown being named MVP of the women’s world championship games in both 1997 (Japan) and 2001 (England), securing her third gold medal.
- Gina Oliver Thomas earning All-World honors at the 2009 world championship in the Czech Republic, helping the U.S. reclaim the gold medal.
- Uganda becoming the first African national team to compete in a world championship in 2014, marking a significant moment for the sport’s global expansion.
Lacrosse in Popular Culture: Expanding the Sport’s Reach
As lacrosse continued to grow in popularity, it began to intersect with popular culture, further expanding its reach and appeal to new audiences.
How has lacrosse influenced and been influenced by popular culture?
The sport’s growing visibility has led to increased representation in media and entertainment. One notable example is the LXM Pro Tour, launched by lacrosse star Kyle Harrison in 2009. This tour combined professional lacrosse with music and lifestyle elements, attracting a broader audience to the sport.
In August 2010, popular rapper Wale performed at the LXM Pro Tour event in Philadelphia, demonstrating the growing crossover appeal between lacrosse and mainstream entertainment. Such collaborations have helped to raise the sport’s profile and attract new fans and participants from diverse backgrounds.
Advancing Diversity and Inclusion: HBCU Lacrosse and Beyond
The growth of lacrosse programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has been a crucial development in expanding access to the sport and fostering diversity within the lacrosse community.
When did HBCU women’s lacrosse make its debut?
On March 15, 2013, a significant milestone was reached when Howard University and Delaware State University faced off in the first-ever HBCU women’s lacrosse game. Howard emerged victorious with a 17-4 win, but the true significance of the event lay in its groundbreaking nature, paving the way for increased participation and representation in the sport.
Other notable developments in advancing diversity and inclusion in lacrosse include:
- The formation of all-Black midfield lines in collegiate play, such as the unplanned convergence of Shamel Bratton, Rhamel Bratton, and Will Barrow for Virginia in a 2008 game against Johns Hopkins.
- The success of athletes like Taylor Thornton, who received the Honda Award as the nation’s top women’s lacrosse player in 2012, and Demianne Cook, who led the nation in scoring with 90 goals in 2013.
The Evolution of Lacrosse: From Traditional Game to Modern Sport
The journey of lacrosse from its Native American origins to its current status as a popular modern sport is a testament to its enduring appeal and adaptability.
How has lacrosse changed over time?
Lacrosse has undergone significant transformations since its early days as a Native American game. Some key developments include:
- Standardization of rules and equipment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Introduction of women’s lacrosse in the early 1900s
- Expansion of collegiate programs and the establishment of professional leagues
- Technological advancements in stick design and protective gear
- Growing international participation and recognition
Despite these changes, the core elements that make lacrosse unique – its fast pace, combination of physical and strategic play, and emphasis on teamwork – have remained constant throughout its evolution.
What challenges and opportunities lie ahead for lacrosse?
As lacrosse continues to grow and evolve, it faces both challenges and opportunities. Some key areas of focus for the sport’s future development include:
- Expanding access to the sport in underserved communities
- Increasing diversity and inclusion at all levels of play and leadership
- Balancing tradition with innovation to attract new players and fans
- Pursuing Olympic recognition to further boost the sport’s global profile
- Addressing concerns about player safety and equipment standards
By addressing these challenges and capitalizing on new opportunities, lacrosse can continue to grow and thrive, honoring its rich history while embracing a diverse and inclusive future.
A Timeline of Black Lacrosse History
As we continue our celebration of Black History Month, we honor some of the key figures in the sport’s history and significant milestones that have helped shape the lacrosse world. We are proud to continue our content partnership with Blaxer’s Blog to help recognize key moments in our sport.
Throughout the month, we will continue to share more stories on the people that make our sport special.
1888
Albert F. Lewis, the first known Black lacrosse player, takes the field as a goalie for the Cornwall Club and the Canadian national team. His name is found in a Montreal Gazette article from 1888.
JUNE 10, 1957
Jim Brown scores five goals in the first half of the USILA North-South Game in Baltimore. Just a few months later, he begins his pro football career with the Cleveland Browns.
1969
Tina Sloan Green tours with the U.S. women’s team to Australia and New Zealand as the first Black player in U.
S. team history.
MARCH 9, 1975
Morgan State upsets No. 1-ranked Washington and Lee in men’s lacrosse, the inspiration for the “Ten Bears” book chronicling the historic occasion. Members of the Bears program rose to fame in the lacrosse world, with Joe Fowlkes gracing the cover of the NCAA Lacrosse Guide in 1978.
SPRING 1982
Temple wins the AIAW championship under Tina Sloan Green, the first of three national championships she won as head coach of the Owls.
MAY 30, 1989
Syracuse’s Rodney Dumpson scores game-winning goal against Johns Hopkins in the NCAA title game. Dumpson finished his college career with three national championships.
JULY 15, 1990
Fred Opie helps the U.S. men win a world championship in Perth, Australia. Opie was the first Black player in U.S. men’s team history.
MAY 4, 1997
Cherie Greer Brown is named the MVP of the world championship game in Japan. She repeats as MVP of the title game in 2001 in England, winning her third gold medal.
SUMMER 1999
Rick Sowell becomes the first Black men’s head coach at the Division I level after earning the job at Dartmouth.
MARCH 1, 2003
Virginia’s John Christmas scores the game-winning goal to clinch a victory over top-ranked Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Later that season, Christmas scored the final goal of Virginia’s 9-7 national championship game win over Johns Hopkins.
JUNE 3, 2005
Johns Hopkins’ Kyle Harrison becomes the first Black player to win the Tewaaraton Award.
JANUARY 17, 2006
Brian Silcott is named the first Black head coach in Major League Lacrosse history. He coached the San Francisco Dragons for two seasons.
MARCH 22, 2008
Shamel Bratton, Rhamel Bratton and Will Barrow play together on an all-Black midfield line as Virginia defeats Johns Hopkins 13-12 in overtime — an unplanned convergence that played out on national TV and two days later was recognized by the Baltimore Sun as “a milestone for diversity within lacrosse.
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MARCH 12, 2009
Howard, coached by Jessy Morgan, hosted Bryant, coached by Karen Healy, marking the first time that two Black women’s lacrosse coaches went head-to-head in a Division I game.
JUNE 27, 2009
Gina Oliver Thomas earns All-World honors at the world championship in the Czech Republic, helping the U.S. win back the gold medal.
AUGUST 2010
Wale performs at LXM Pro Tour in Philadelphia. Kyle Harrison launched the LXM Pro Tour in 2009 and debuted in its inaugural season a year later.
JUNE 5, 2012
Taylor Thornton receives the Honda Award as the nation’s top women’s lacrosse player. Thornton finished her Northwestern career earning All-America honors four times while helping the Wildcats win two national championships.
MARCH 15, 2013
The first-ever HBCU women’s lacrosse game between Howard and Delaware State ends with a 17-4 Bison victory.
MAY 12, 2013
Demianne Cook scores a pair of goals in an NCAA tournament game against Maryland, finishing the season with a nation-best 90 goals.
Cook scored 158 goals in just two seasons at Stony Brook after transferring from Adelphi, where she was twice named the IWLCA Midfielder of the Year and led the Panthers to consecutive NCAA Division II championships.
JULY 11, 2014
Uganda becomes the first African national team to compete in a world championship, facing Ireland in its opening game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., the occasion providing cause for a Lacrosse Magazine cover story entitled, “For Uganda, For Africa.”
History of Lacrosse – Marquette University Athletics
Dec. 16, 2010
Courtesy of US Lacrosse
History of Lacrosse Timeline
Lacrosse, considered to be America’s first sport, was born of the North American Indian, christened by the French, and adapted and raised by the Canadians. Modern lacrosse has been embraced by athletes and enthusiasts of the United States and the British Commonwealth for over a century.
The sport of lacrosse is a combination of basketball, soccer and hockey. Anyone can play lacrosse — the big or the small. The game requires and rewards coordination and agility, not brawn. Quickness and speed are two highly prized qualities in lacrosse.
An exhilarating sport, lacrosse is fast-paced and full of action. Long sprints up and down the field with abrupt starts and stops, precision passes and dodges are routine in men’s and women’s lacrosse. Lacrosse is played with a stick, the crosse, which must be mastered by the player to throw, catch and scoop the ball.
Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing team sports in the United States. Youth participation in the sport has grown over 138 percent since 2001 to nearly 300,000. No sport has grown faster at the high school level over the last 10 years and there are now an estimated 228,000 high school players. Lacrosse is also the fastest-growing sport over the last six years at the NCAA level with 557 college teams in 2009, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There are more than 500 college club programs, including nearly 200 women’s teams that compete at the US Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates level.
Membership in the Wisconsin chapter of US Lacrosse has grown by over 300 percent in the last five years, with 2,679 current members of the local chapter. In 2005 there were 836 members in the state of Wisconsin.
In the early days of lacrosse, legend tells of as many as 1,000 players per side, from the same or different tribes, who took turns engaging in a violent contest. Contestants played on a field from one to 15 miles in length, and games sometimes lasted for days. Some tribes used a single pole, tree or rock for a goal, while other tribes had two goalposts through which the ball had to pass. Balls were made out of wood, deerskin, baked clay or stone.
The evolution of the Native American game into modern lacrosse began in 1636 when Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary, documented a Huron contest in what is now southeast Ontario, Canada.
At that time, some type of lacrosse was played by at least 48 Native American tribes scattered throughout what is now southern Canada and all parts of the United States. French pioneers began playing the game avidly in the 1800s. Canadian dentist W. George Beers standardized the game in 1867 with the adoption of set field dimensions, limits to the number of players per team and other basic rules.
New York University fielded the nation’s first college team in 1876, and Philips Academy, Andover (Massachusetts), Philips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) and the Lawrenceville School (New Jersey) were the nation’s first high school teams in 1882. There are 400 college and 1,200 high school men’s lacrosse teams from coast to coast. The first women’s lacrosse game was played in 1890 at the St. Leonard’s School in Scotland. Although an attempt was made to start women’s lacrosse at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1914, it was not until 1926 that Miss Rosabelle Sinclair established the first women’s lacrosse team in the United States at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland.
Men’s and women’s lacrosse were played under virtually the same rules, with no protective equipment, until the mid-1930s. At that time, men’s lacrosse began evolving dramatically, while women’s lacrosse continued to remain true to the game’s original rules. Men’s and women’s lacrosse remain derivations of the same game today, but are played under different rules. Women’s rules limit stick contact, prohibit body contact and, therefore, require little protective equipment. Men’s lacrosse rules allow some degree of stick and body contact, although violence is neither condoned nor allowed.
Lacrosse Timeline
1636 – Jesuit Missionary Jean de Brebeuf is the first to document the game of lacrosse
1867 – Dr. William George Beers, the father of modern lacrosse, finalizes the first set of playing rules
1876 – New York University is the first college in the United States to establish a lacrosse team
1881 – The first intercollegiate tournament is held at Westchester Polo Grounds in New York
1890 – The first women’s lacrosse game is played at St.
Leonard’s School in St. Andrew’s Scotland
1904 and 1908 – Lacrosse is played in the Olympics
1971 – Men’s college lacrosse allies with the NCAA
1982 – The first NCAA women’s championship is played
1998 – US Lacrosse is founded as the national governing body of men’s and women’s lacrosse
2001 – First season of women’s lacrosse as championship sport in the BIG EAST Conference
2001 – Major League Lacrosse, a professional league for field lacrosse, makes its debut
2008 – The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) is formed through a merger of the men’s and women’s international lacrosse associations
2010 – Inaugural season of BIG EAST men’s lacrosse
2012 – BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Championship will be held for the first time
2013 – First season of men’s and women’s lacrosse as intercollegiate varsity sports at Marquette University
2014 – Marquette becomes a full member of the BIG EAST Conference in men’s and women’s lacrosse
Michkov match.
Matvey’s lacrosse goal overshadowed the result of the game with the Swedes
The Russians lost 2:4, but everyone will remember this game because of Michkov’s magnificent puck, which broke another record.
Teams of Russia and Sweden approached Saturday’s head-to-head match in different moods. On Wednesday, the Swedes outplayed the Czechs in Linkoping with a score of 4:1. As for our guys, on Thursday they lost to the Finns without any options (0:3). In addition, yesterday it became known that the head coach of the Russian team, Oleg Bratash, was forced to leave its location due to family circumstances that arose from him. Instead of him, the leadership of the team was taken over by Sergey Zubov, who made several changes in its composition.
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He looked like this today.
Anton Bengtsson successfully ran into the patch and closed the pass from the left side of Fredrik Olofsson.
Karl Klingberg successfully ambushed the puck on the rebound after Kalle Schelin’s shot. This time the Russians gave an immediate response to this goal. Sergei Telegin successfully connected to the attack and threw from the boards to a nickel, where Artem Galimov won the fight for the puck and pushed it into the goal.
Our team lost in the second match at the Karjala Cup, but thanks to Matvey Michkov, no one will discuss the result of this game. She was remembered, first of all, by his magnificent lacrosse goal. We are waiting for a new extravaganza from Matvey in tomorrow’s match with the Czech Republic!Canadian hockey player scored a lacrosse goal in the MFM-2022 match
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Canadian youth team forward Kent Johnson scored a lacrosse goal in the MFM-2022 match with the Czech team. Related Stories |
