The Myth of Canadian Lacrosse

The year was 1988. I was nearing the end of my time at Jean Vanier Catholic school in London, Ontario, when the school was visited by a rather peculiar man. Though he was clearly of Indian descent, the man spoke with a British accent. He wore all white and carried with him something that looked like an oar whose shaft had been sawed off. Turns out this was a bat. I remember him standing before our class and asking what seemed to be an idiotic question at the time:

"Can anyone tell me the name of Canada's National sport?" he asked. Who did he take us for? Everyone knew the answer to that!

"Hockey!" someone piped up.

"No, not hockey." he replied.

"It's Lacrosse!" someone else exclaimed.

"No, I'm sorry. It isn't Lacrosse, either." he answered.

You could see the confusion in the crowd. Who did this guy think he was? We're Canadian damn it! We know our own National Game.

"It's Cricket!" he finally revealed.

Shock. Silence. And then muffled protests.

"Cricket is the game of the British Empire and, as members of the Commonwealth, it is therefore Canada's National Sport, as well." he explained.

Outrage! There was NO way he could be right! He must be daft! This was all just some hoax to help him with his stupid presentation, wasn't it? Wasn't it?!?

Fast-forward to the winter term of 2000 at the University of Western Ontario. I was going through my Kinesiology phase and found myself in the Introduction to Canadian Sport History course, taught by my favorite professor of all time: Dr Kevin Wamsley, current Director of the International Center for Olympic Studies on Western's campus. We were working our way through 19th century sports and its roots in Montreal when we came to the topic of Lacrosse. Again, a similar question was asked:

"What is Canada's National sport?"

At this point, we KNEW it was Lacrosse. Sure, we figured it should be hockey, but it was generally accepted that for one reason or another, Lacrosse was chosen. The answer?

"Prior to May 12, 1994, when the National Sports of Canada Act was introduced, we HAD no National Sport!"

Yes, dear friends, it's true. We've all been duped and, in tribute to my former professor, I would like to put to rest the myth that Lacrosse was ever our National Sport, prior to 1994. As it turns out, the belief that Lacrosse was Canada's National Sport can all be traced back to the efforts of one man: Dr. William George Beers--a Montreal dentist and lacrosse player/enthusiast.

Beers is often cited as the Father of Lacrosse, having gone to considerable lengths to promote the game and codify the rules. But in my opinion, his greatest triumph lies in his successful use of what I refer to as the Howard Stern effect: if you say something often enough, people start to believe it. Once upon a time, Stern would refer to himself as the "King of All Media" and, after about a year of such self-promotion, others started calling him that as well. This was pretty much the same tactic that Beers used to promote the sport of Lacrosse.

He figured that, after Confederation, the new nation needed a sport to help foster a national identity. So with the aid of the powerful Montreal sporting associations, Beers set up promotional tours and letters to media publications promoting Lacrosse as the National game. He even went so far as to claim that he proposed to Parliament that Lacrosse be adopted as the national sport as far back as 1859. Complete fabrication.

As Wamsely and Morrow point out, Beers would have been 16 years old at the time. I don't care how backwards politics has become (or may have been), but I can't see anyone listening to a 16 year old kid about what Canada needs to do to foster a new sense of national pride. In fact, they also go on to say that:

The Canadian Parliamentary Proceedings and Sessional Papers and the Journals of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada reveal that Parliament was not even in session in either January or July 1859 and that no mention of lacrosse was made in those publications during the entire year.

I think we've all got the idea now. Beers was SO successful in his propaganda campaign, that the Canadian Lacrosse Association continues to perpetuate this fallacy on their website! But now all of you know better. For more on this subject, please refer to Sport in Canada-A History by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley.