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THE GAME THEN AND NOW:
Dating back centuries, lacrosse is by far North America’s oldest sport. It was a game invented by the Native Indians and was not only used as a surrogate for warfare and well being, also an event organized for religious holidays and particular changes of season or positions of heavenly bodies. Games could last for days and involve hundreds of players over large acreages of land. Often the games were fought much like a war, hence the origins of its Native name “hotti icose” or “younger brother of war”. It was the French who named it ‘lacrosse’, an expression commonly used in the France of that day, to describe any game with a curved stick and ball.
As more and more Europeans migrated to the Americas, interest in the game grew and, along with the interest, came change…
In 1867, lacrosse leagues began to emerge in Eastern Canada, taking the game to a smaller field similar to those used for soccer. In the mid 1900’s, the game was declared Canada’s national sport.
US Collegiate lacrosse began in 1877, with NYU fielding the nation’s first team. Five years later, the first high school teams would surface. In 1970, the NCAA sanctioned the sport for collegiate play. There are now over 500,000 active male and female players in the United States. Every year, over one hundred and seventy participating NCAA universities and colleges compete for national championships.
The NLL (National Lacrosse League) is a professional indoor league with its season running from December to March of each year and includes thirteen teams based in both the USA and Canada.
A World Cup tournament is played every four years and attracts teams from countries around the world. The last championship series was played in Perth, Australia, 2002. Victory was claimed by Team USA.
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