History Of Lacrosse

If you think about the history of sport itself, you’d envision the roman gladiatorial arenas, chariot racetracks, and the stadiums where contests of any kind are played and served to appease the bloodthirsty roman crowd. Sports in the old days are very much catered to needs such as these: violent and fierce, where casual bloodlettings are the norm. Aside from the gladiator matches, people are treated to sport feats that carry even to this day: sprinting and marathon, discus throwing and javelin toss, wrestling and boxing, weight lifting and pole vaulting. So many sports occurred on these roman arenas that most sports histories are credited there. But there are other sports that had grown away from the far-reaching roman influence. And one of these sports is lacrosse, though the history of lacrosse mirror closely of those games that are played on the roman arenas.

One of the oldest sports, the history of lacrosse is none less severe. It is because it was a training exercise used to condition warriors and heightens their skills before combat. With the way the history of lacrosse had developed, it can be seen in a similar light to hurling, an equally ancient game played by the Gaelic tribes living on the Scottish provinces. These two games almost mirror each other: both are played using sticks to maneuver a solid, round object to a given goal, both games are played by strong and virile men, and both games are prelude to a war.

Due to the discrediting of the widely accepted belief that it was Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus who first to set foot on the Americas, that instead it was some Viking tribesmen who crossed the isles into the New World by the way of Iceland and outposts in Greenland, and going deeper until they reach the main parts of Canada. Many have also speculated that it must also be these visiting Celtic tribes that have introduced the bloody sport to the North American Indian tribes. That should pertinently explain how the lacrosse history came to mirror so closely its far northern cousins. How it became so integrated to the Canadian culture and the Vineland ruins shows a hypothetically sound conjecture that it was the northern tribes that brought the history of lacrosse to North America.

Whatever the case, should the game be considered a direct offspring to games like hurling; lacrosse was a game strong men played. By then it wasn’t called lacrosse, by the Algonquin tribes it was called baggatway, by the Onondaga as dehuntshigwa'es which means “men hit a rounded object, Tewaarathon by the Mohawk which means “little war”, and by the Cherokee Indians as da-nah-wah'uwsdi, which means “little brother of war” and baaga`adowe, or “knocking around balls” by the Ojibwe Indians. The given Indian names definitely implies its warlike nature, it was really a kind of small war, with injuries and deaths at both sides, though of course, the focus should be on producing goals and not outright killing of the opposition members.

There are several reasons for playing the game. One of them is a method of settling tribal disputes that could erupt into a bloody feud. By playing the baggatway, the problem could be resolve with less hostility than would prove otherwise. Lacrosse, or baggatway, is also a method of priming young warriors for future combat activities, since the game at this stage centers mostly on incapacitating the foes to have an easy time scoring the goals.

The modern face of lacrosse is remarkably different, though the experience is still the same. In fact, since the focus is no longer on physically injuring the opposition, the game can be played and enjoyed without the fear of deaths and reprisals, as often the case in the long history of lacrosse.