Canada’s Homegrown Summer Sport
A brief overview of the Canadian summer sport Lacrosse from its First Nations roots to contemporary times and why UTM had no team during its Varsity sports years.
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While hockey is widely recognized as Canada’s national sport, another game has historically taken second spot as distinctly Canadian in heritage: lacrosse. It’s a team sport played with a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick containing a netted pocket (the crosse) used to handle the ball and get it into the opposing teams net.
The sport of lacrosse holds a distinction of having Indigenous origins. The official Canadian lacrosse website acknowledges that the game has been played for centuries by the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island as not just a sport, but an expression of gratitude for spirituality and the community. Today, the sport has become a symbol of Canadian identity and unity. So, unlike hockey which has speculated roots in countries outside Canada, the foundation of lacrosse originates from Canada’s Indigenous population.
In the 1600s, lacrosse emerged as a sacred sport titled the Baggataway or Tewaarathon by the Algonquians and Iroquois respectively. They believed the game to be a gift from the creator for purposes such as settling conflicts. From the 1600s to the mid 1800s, French settlers renamed the Indigenous game “la crosse” due to its resemblance with a bishop’s staff. By the 1840s, settlers had attempted to reinvent the game with new rules.
In 1869, the sport was declared Canada’s national game following the Montreal Lacrosse Club forming the National Lacrosse Association —which was also the first national sport governing body in North America. It was eventually featured in the 1904 and 1908 Olympic Games. However, tensions began to brew between amateurism and professionalism practices regarding playing the game for passion versus getting well-earned compensation for it. Continuous disagreements led to the introductions of the National Lacrosse Union (NLU) to advocate for players to be paid for their talent and the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA) to enforce the amateur worldview. Despite the division, lacrosse was still popular by the 1920s and beyond
In an effort to revive interest in the sport, box lacrosse, a faster-paced, high-action version of the game played in hockey rinks was introduced in the 1930s, and quickly became the more popular form of the sport in Canada. Interest in field lacrosse was growing in the United States and United Kingdom during the late 1930s and 1940s. It wasn’t until 1978 that Canada returned to the international spotlight by defeating the USA in the Field Lacrosse World Championships.
No love for lacrosse
Despite hosting other varsity sports in the past, UTM has never had its own lacrosse team. The Eagles athletics department ran and continues to feature sports such as basketball, badminton, cross country, and soccer, while lacrosse was never given a chance. Lacrosse’s lack of meaningful programming at UTM reflects its historical inconsistent periods of popularity and funding compared to other mainstream sports.
Competitive intercollegiate field lacrosse at the university level in the Greater Toronto Area has mainly been centralized under the University of Toronto Varsity Blues’ umbrella. The men’s team competes in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA), an independent league founded in 1984 consisting of several university teams in Ontario and Quebec. Additionally a women’s team competes under Ontario University Athletics (OUA). However, these teams operate as a unified tri-campus system meaning UTM students wishing to play lacrosse have had to try out for the St-George based teams.
UTM’s decision to join the OCAA, a league in the college athletic circuit, is a primary reason the UTM Eagles never fielded a lacrosse team during the varsity era. While the OCAA offered a more accessible tier of competition, lacrosse was historically absent from their sanctioned sports offerings. The collegiate circuits appear to favor established mainstream sports such as hockey, basketball and soccer which absorb large amounts of athletic funding and student interest.
Regardless of the recent prioritization of other growing sports, lacrosse has remained a powerful symbol of Indigenous heritage and Canadian national pride with our local team the Toronto Rock welcoming their sixth championship and the NLL finding stable popularity.
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