大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Lacrosse across the globe 鈥� the Indigenous American sport that only became popular once a girls鈥� school in Fife started playing it

Lacrosse across the globe 鈥� the Indigenous American sport that only became popular once a girls鈥� school in Fife started playing it

11 January 2019

The sport of lacrosse is popular across the world, but it only became popular in Europe due to a headmistress at a girls’ school in Fife.

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip met with lacrosse historian Jane Claydon, who talked about how the original version of the sport bore little resemblance to the one played today.

Kaye Adams finds out about Lacrosse, the popular Scottish sport with a remarkable history

St Leonards school for girls hosted its first game in UK鈥檚 soil in 1890.

Lacrosse has its origins among the indigenous peoples of North America.

Games were played as far back as the 12th Century and were huge events, designed to toughen young warriors for war.

“There were possibly a thousand people on a team,” Clayton explained. “[The games] covered a huge area.”

The sport was named lacrosse in 1637 and became popular with non-indigenous Canadians in the mid-1800s. In 1876, dentist Dr William George Beers changed the rules, reducing the number of players to twelve, and organised competitive matches across America.

But it was the headmistress of St Leonards Girls’ School in St Andrews who first brought the game to the attention of British people.

Dame Louisa Lumsden was attending a science conference in Montreal and was invited to watch a game of lacrosse.

She was so enthralled by the game that she brought it back to her school and the first game of lacrosse was played on British soil in Fife in 1890.