The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A brief history of lacrosse The Six Tribes of the Iroquois, in what is now southern Ontario and upstate New York, called their version of the game "baggataway" or "tewaraathon". It was much more organized than in most areas of the country. There were 12 to 15 players per team, and the goals were about 120 feet apart. According to most accounts, the first Europeans to see baggataway being played were French explorers who thought the stick resembled a bishop's crozierÑla crosse, in FrenchÑso the sport was given a new name. Early in the 19th century, Europeans in Canada began playing the game. The first step toward turning lacrosse into a genuinely organized, modern sport came when the Montreal Lacrosse Club, founded in 1856, developed the first written rules. Canada's National Lacrosse Association, which was also established in 1867, quickly adopted the new rules. The Mann Cup is the trophy awarded to the senior men's lacrosse champions of Canada. The championship series is played between the winner of the Western Lacrosse Association and the winner of the Ontario Lacrosse Association. The trophy was donated in 1901 by Sir Donald Mann. Information was gathered from www.hickoksports.com/history/lacrosse and Wikipedia.
