Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a contact team sport where players use a stick with a netted head to carry, pass, and shoot a ball into a goal. It is recognized as the oldest organized sport in North America, originating among Indigenous peoples as early as the 1100s. European colonists later heavily modified the game, dialing back its violence to shape the collegiate and professional versions played today.

There are five distinct versions of the sport: field lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, box lacrosse, lacrosse sixes, and intercrosse. Each differs in stick design, field size, rules, and equipment. Men’s field lacrosse (outdoor) and box lacrosse (indoor) are full-contact games, requiring helmets, gloves, shoulder pads, and elbow pads. Women’s lacrosse, played outdoors, prohibits body contact but allows stick-to-stick contact; players need only eye protection, though goalies wear helmets and pads. Lacrosse sixes, played by both men and women on a smaller field, is the format most often seen at multi-sport events. Intercrosse is a non-contact, mixed-gender version using an all-plastic stick and a softer ball.

The modern sport is governed by World Lacrosse, the only international sports body that recognizes First Nations bands and Native American tribes as sovereign nations. World Lacrosse organizes the Men’s and Women’s World Championships, the Box Lacrosse World Championships, and the Under-19 World Championships for both genders—each held every four years. Lacrosse has appeared at the Summer Olympics twice, in 1904 and 1908, and will return in 2028 in the lacrosse sixes format. It was also a demonstration event in 1928, 1932, and 1948.

**History**

Lacrosse grew out of games played by various Native American communities as early as 1100 AD. By the 1600s, a version of the game was well established and documented by Jesuit missionaries in what is now Canada. In the traditional Indigenous Canadian version, teams could include 100 to 1,000 men, playing on fields several miles long. Games lasted from sunrise to sunset for two or three days, serving as ceremonial rituals, symbolic warfare, or offerings of thanks to the Creator.

For centuries, lacrosse held deep spiritual and communal significance for tribes across the continent. Participants took on the role of warriors, seeking glory and honor for themselves and their people. The game was often called “the Creator’s Game,” and one version was known as “baggataway.”

In 1637, French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf saw Huron men playing the game in present-day Ontario. He called it *la crosse*, French for “the stick,” a name likely borrowed from the French term for field hockey, *le jeu de la crosse*. In 1757, James Smith described a Mohawk game using a wooden ball about three inches in diameter and a five-foot staff with a hoop net at one end large enough to hold the ball.

English-speaking Montrealers began playing after watching the Mohawk in the 1830s. In 1856, Canadian dentist William George Beers founded the Montreal Lacrosse Club. By 1860, Beers had codified the rules, shortening games and limiting teams to 12 players. The first match under his rules took place in 1867 at Upper Canada College, which lost 3–1 to the Toronto Cricket Club. The sport spread quickly across the English-speaking world; by 1900, dozens of men’s clubs existed in Canada, the United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand. Women’s lacrosse was introduced by Louisa Lumsden in Scotland in 1890, and the first U.S. women’s club was founded by Rosabelle Sinclair at Bryn Mawr School in 1926.

In the United States, lacrosse remained largely regional through the late 1800s and early 1900s, centered on the Mid-Atlantic states, especially New York and Maryland. During the latter half of the 20th century, it expanded nationwide. A 2016 survey by US Lacrosse reported over 825,000 participants across the country, making it the fastest-growing team sport among NFHS member schools.

**Versions of Lacrosse**

**Field Lacrosse** is the men’s outdoor version. Each team fields ten players: three attackmen, three midfielders, three defensemen, and one goalie. Attackmen and midfielders use a short stick (40–42 inches). Up to four players per team may carry a long stick (52–72 inches), typically the three defensemen and sometimes a defensive midfielder. The goalie’s stick has a head up to 12 inches wide and a shaft between 40 and 72 inches. The field measures 110 by 60 yards, with goals six feet square set 80 yards apart. Each goal sits inside an 18-foot-diameter crease, where the goalie has special protection from stick checks; offensive players and their sticks may not enter the crease.