The history of lacrosse.

This section is a history of lacrosse: the games the nations of North America played before any European wrote about them, how the game was organised in Montreal and written into rules, its place in Canada, its Olympic years, the women's game, box lacrosse, the international federations, college lacrosse and the professional leagues. It is history only. Nothing in it teaches how to play, and how the game is organised and governed today is in Learn.

How these pages are written

• The nations' own accounts come first. The Indigenous origins of the game are written from what the Onondaga Nation, the Haudenosaunee Nationals, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma's newspaper Biskinik, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and named historians say, each attributed. One nation's account is never presented as every nation's, and nothing is added about ceremony or belief beyond what those sources state.
• No origin year. No source read for this site gives a verified date for the game's beginning. Figures such as about 1100 CE or about 1,000 years are estimates, and the pages say who gives them.
• Every date has a source. Each fact is given with the body, museum, historian or publication it comes from, and each page lists its sources.
• Disputed questions get every version. Our research recorded 27 points where sources disagree, among them the year of the first Jesuit account, where the name lacrosse came from, whether lacrosse was declared Canada's national game in 1859, how many clubs met at Kingston in 1867, who started box lacrosse, the year the Iroquois Nationals were admitted to the international federation, and the date of the 2008 merger. Each is given both ways on the page concerned.
• Names as they were at the time. The Haudenosaunee Nationals were the Iroquois Nationals from 1983 until 2022, and the pages use the name in force at the date described.
• Wikipedia is named when it stands alone, and anything seen only in a search summary, or resting on one source we could not check, is marked unconfirmed or left out.
• No money. These pages give no prices, salaries, franchise values or other money figures.

What is in this section

Origins

Indigenous origins gives the Haudenosaunee account in the nations' own words, the Choctaw game of ishtaboli, the Cherokee and Ojibwe games, the names of the game, stick making, and why no origin year can be given. Early accounts covers the Jesuit reports of the 1630s, the rival explanations of the name lacrosse, later observers, and Fort Michilimackinac in June 1763.

Canada and the organised game

Montreal and the first rules follows the exhibition games from 1834, William George Beers and his rules, the Kingston convention of 26 September 1867, the barring of Indigenous players by 1880, and the tours to Britain. Lacrosse in Canada sets out the disputed 1859 national game claim against the National Sports of Canada Act of 1994, explains why Lacrosse Canada dates itself to 1867 while others say 1925, and lists the founding of the national trophies. Box lacrosse gives the four accounts of how the indoor game took shape by the early 1930s and how quickly it replaced field lacrosse in Canada.

The Haudenosaunee Nationals

The Haudenosaunee Nationals tells how the Iroquois Nationals were formed in 1983, refused in 1986 and admitted to the International Lacrosse Federation in 1987, travelled on Haudenosaunee passports, became the Haudenosaunee Nationals in 2022 and sought a place at the 2028 Olympics.

The world game

The Olympic years covers the medal tournaments of 1904 and 1908, the demonstrations of 1928, 1932 and 1948, and the return approved for Los Angeles 2028. The women's game runs from St Leonards School in 1890 to the first World Cup of 1982. The international federations follows the women's and men's world bodies to their merger in 2008 and the rename to World Lacrosse.

College and professional lacrosse

College lacrosse runs from the first intercollegiate game in 1877 to the first NCAA championships of 1971 and 1982. Professional leagues covers professional play from the 19th century to the National Lacrosse League, the Premier Lacrosse League and the women's leagues. The timeline puts the main dated events in one table.

Related reading

World Lacrosse and the national bodies as they are today are described on World Lacrosse and national bodies, and the road to 2028 on the Olympic path. Recent results are in Events, and terms used across the site are in the glossary.