Lacrosse is the oldest team sport in North America, having been played by Native American tribes long before any European had even set foot on the continent. A century after European missionaries discovered the game played by Native Americans, they began to play it themselves, starting in the 18th century. From there, it evolved and grew in popularity from a very savage game that resembled war, into what it is today, a recreational sport played widely in America and other countries. As U.S. Lacrosse literature aptly puts it "Lacrosse is a game born of the North American Indian, christened by the French, adopted and raised by the Canadians, and later dominated by the Americans."
When the first people of America started playing lacrosse …show more content…

Although it was still a rather obscure sport, lacrosse had grown considerably by the turn of the century from an almost unheard of sport played only by Native Americans, into a sport that was played by many European Americans, mostly on the East Coast (Source A). When it was featured as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in St. Louis in 1904 and in London in 1908, lacrosse gained more recognition in the U.S. and the world. In 1904, Canada won the gold medal by defeating the St. Louis AAA Club team, which was representing the U.S. Canada once again won the gold in 1908, defeating England (Source A). The Johns Hopkins University team, which was to represent the United States, did not go to the Olympics that year due to lack of funds. Although the Olympics provided lacrosse with more national and international exposure, the sport did not return to the Olympics until it was an exhibition event in 1928 (Source A).
Lacrosse is a game that has evolved from a sport that would be used as a substitute for war to a recreational game played by many Americans. People always say that baseball if America's past time, but if they take time to think about it lacrosse has been around centuries before baseball. So technically lacrosse is America's real past time.
Works Cited

Lund, Peter Bailey. Lacrosse: a History of the Game. (Source A)

Vennum, Thomas. American Indian Lacrosse. (Source