Lacrosse: A History of the Game

Honorable Mention, Best Sport History Book Awards, North American Society for Sport History. North America’s Indian people have always viewed competitive sport as something more than a pastime. The northeastern Indians’ ball-and-stick game that would become lacrosse served both symbolic and practical functions. Today a multimillion-dollar industry, lacrosse is played by colleges and high schools, amateur clubs, and two professional leagues. In Lacrosse , Donald M. Fisher traces the evolution of the sport from the pre-colonial era to the founding in 2001 of a professional outdoor league, told through the stories of the people behind each step in lacrosse’s development - from Canadian dentist George Beers, the father of the modern game, to Rosabelle Sinclair, who played a large role reinforcing the feminine qualities of the women’s game in the 1950s, to 1960s Indian star Gaylord Powless, who endured racist taunts both on and off the field.