INQUIRY IDEA K - THE NATIONAL SPORT:  LACROSSE OR HOCKEY?

Consult these excerpts linked to the Web activity Inquiry Idea K "The national sport: lacrosse or hockey?."

83. What are the origins of lacrosse?
84. How did lacrosse develop in the 19th century?
85. What are the origins of hockey?
86. How did hockey develop in the 19^th century?
87. How did hockey evolve in the 20^th century?
88. Where is lacrosse played in Canada today?

 83) What are the origins of lacrosse?

“Lacrosse originated among the Algonquian tribes of the St Lawrence Valley in eastern Canada. For this reason, it is often described as the oldest organized sport in North America. The game has 2 forms. Field lacrosse is played outdoors on a ground that is 110 by 64 m, by teams of 10 players each. A hard rubber ball is passed and thrown between players by means of large, curved sticks with a pocket of netting or webbing. The object is to score points by tossing the ball into the opposing team's goal.”

West, Thomas J. “Lacrosse”, The Canadian Encylclopedia, [On line], http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004453 (page consulted February 4, 2005).

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 84) How did lacrosse develop in the 19th century?

“Summer sports were also fuelled by Montreal’s prominence and its sportsmen.  Snowshoeing’s summer counterpart was lacrosse, and the overlap between these two sports accounts for the growth and development of lacrosse in its early years.  Impromptu games among natives, and between native and white teams, led in 1856 to the formation of Canada’s first lacrosse organization, the Montreal Lacrosse Club, by several of the members of the Montreal Snow Shoe Club.  Lacrosse grew slowly in Montreal, and until the 1860s only a few other clubs were formed.  But during that decade zealous promotion by MLC member Dr. W. George Beers, a dentist, accelerated the development of the sport.  Called a ‘flaming lacrosse evangelist’, Beers argued the merits of lacrosse over cricket as a symbol of national identity in the Montreal press throughout the 1860s.  As a direct result of Beers’ campaigning, and the leadership of Beers and the MLC in drawing up the first rules early in the decade, the representatives of twenty-seven clubs in Ontario and Quebec met in Kingston in 1867 to form Canada’s first sport governing body, the National Lacrosse Association.  By the end of the Confederation year there were eighty clubs in the two provinces and lacrosse went on to flourish as one of the most widespread and popular sports in Canada.”

Morrow, Don, Mary Keyes, Wayne Simpson, Frank Cosentino and Ron Lappage. A Concise History of Sport in Canada, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 12.

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 85) What are the origins of hockey?

“Ice hockey doubtless originated in the stick and ball games of bandy, shinty and hurley, each of which was brought to the colonies in one form or another by students or the military since the 10th century. Of these, it is likely bandy, which is played on ice with goalkeepers, stick and ball, that is the truest forerunner of hockey. The oldest record of bandy is a 13th-century painted glass window in Canterbury Cathedral, where a boy is seen holding a curved stick in one hand and a ball in the other. A similar game called "kolv" is pictured in many Dutch 16th- and 17th-century paintings. However, kolv was not a team sport and seems to have been more like "golf on ice." Bandy was introduced into Scandinavia, Switzerland and Germany in the early 1890s. Indeed, when the teams from those regions arrived at the first winter Olympic games, they intended to play a game more like bandy than Canadian ice hockey.

“Wherever there is pictorial or literary evidence that a game of bandy was played on ice in early Canada, local enthusiasts claim to have discovered the birthplace of ice hockey. Thus, Halifax and Windsor, Nova Scotia, and Kingston, Ontario, have variously put forward their claim.”

Marsh, James. “Ice Hockey”, The Canadian Encylclopedia, [On line], http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0003794 (page consulted February 4, 2005).

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 86) How did hockey develop in the 19^th century?

“Around 1880 three Montrealers who were graduates of McGill University got together to try to iron out some of the problems of hockey and to establish a uniform set of rules.  “The Montreal rule-makers did a very thorough job…Their general set of rules became so widely accepted that they were know as ‘McGill Rules’.

“The popularity of hockey in Montreal continued to soar and it was featured as one of the events during carnival week.  There were then four senior clubs in Montreal: the Victorias, Montreal A.A.A., the Crystals, and McGill.  In 1885 a hockey league was organized in Kingston with four clubs: Kingston Athletics, Kingston hockey Club, Queen’s University, and Royal Military College. […]

“During the early 1890s the Ottawa hockey team was considered the best in Canada.  Lord Stanley was then governor general of Canada, and he was a keen supporter of hockey.  He decided to donate a trophy that could be presented annually to Canada’s outstanding hockey team.”

Howell, Nancy and Maxwell L Howell. Sports and Games in Canadian Life, 1700 to the Present, Toronto, Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1969, p. 75.

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 87) How did hockey evolve in the 20^th century?

“The Montreal Maroons entered the NHL in 1924 and the league successfully moved into the lucrative urban market of the US, adding the Boston Bruins (1924), the New York Americans (1925), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1925), the New York Rangers (1926), the Chicago Black Hawks (1926) and the Detroit Cougars (1926). However, almost every one of the players came from Canada.  […]

“The present form of the sport took shape in the professional leagues, the NHL and the Pacific Coast League. Key innovations were 3 20-minute periods (1910), 6 players (1911) and a gradual relaxation of the stricture against the forward pass: allowed between blue lines (1918), within any of the 3 zones (1929-30), and across blue lines (1930-31). The red line was added in 1943-44. The result was a faster game and more team play.”

Marsh, James. “Ice Hockey”, The Canadian Encylclopedia, [On line], http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0003794 (page consulted February 4, 2005).

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 88) Where is lacrosse played in Canada today?

“The game [lacrosse] is now largely played on Canada's West Coast and in medium-sized towns in Ontario. In fact, both national championships are held alternately in BC and Ontario. The switch to box lacrosse also effectively isolated the Canadian game from international competition. Eventually, supremacy by Canadians in the game they invented was severely challenged.”

West, Thomas J. “Lacrosse”, The Canadian Encylclopedia, [On line], http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004453 (page consulted February 4, 2005).

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