While sports such as basketball and football have been around for a little more than 100 years, lacrosse has been developing and evolving as a sport since before white settlers came to the Americas. Lacrosse, invented by American Indians and adopted by the French, is now played in dozens of countries around the world. The rules, like the game itself, have evolved throughout its history.
American Indians
Long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World, the indigenous people of North America were playing a game that resembles we know today as lacrosse. The rules of the game at that time were quite different, and on a much larger scale.
The field, for instance, was larger. Sometimes is was several miles in length so that hundreds, even thousands, of players could be accommodated. Indians fashioned lacrosse sticks out of branches and limbs, with homemade weavings and pouches to catch the ball, which was often made out animal skin, wood or clay. Tribes traditionally used trees or rocks to mark the goal.
French Influence
As white settlers came over to North America, they began to adopt some of the traditions of the Indians. The French, who settled much of the land where the primitive version of lacrosse was popular, took up the sport and changed the rules to make it into less of a sport and more of a game.
The field was narrowed and shortened to around 500 yards and only 60 men were allowed to play at once, as opposed to the hundreds or thousands allowed by the tribes. As the sport gained in popularity, the field was shortened even more and eventually seven-man teams became the standard.
Original Standardized Rules
In 1867, a doctor by the name of W. George Beers formed the Canadian National Lacrosse association and came up with the first set of rules for the modern game of lacrosse.
Among the original rules were an even shorter field of 200 yards, a standard rubber ball measuring 8 to 9 inches in circumference and a goal crease, which kept players out of the area immediately in front of the goal until the ball had passed it.
Beers' rules also established violations, such as touching the ball with the hands (except by the goalkeeper), the wearing of spiked shoes, and general contact violations such as striking another player with the lacrosse stick and tripping.
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