Peterborough mayor Diane Therrien will be making a special proclamation outside city hall at 11 a.m. on Wednesday (May 4) in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the sport of lacrosse in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough. A new flag celebrating the anniversary will be unveiled.
Lacrosse is the oldest organized sport in North America, with the original version of the game played by Indigenous peoples for hundreds of years before European settlers adopted it and modified it.
The Indigenous game consisted of teams of hundreds of men on fields several kilometres long and often lasted for days. While Indigenous peoples had different names for the game — including baggataway and deyhontsigwa’ehs (“they bump hips”) and tewaarathon (“little brother of war”) — for all of them it served important spiritual, medicinal, social, and political purposes and was considered a gift from the Creator.
In 1637, French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf described entire villages playing each other in games of what he called “la crosse” (“the stick”). By 1860, lacrosse had become the national game of European settlers in Canada and in 1867 exhibition games were played in England. In 1876, a lacrosse game was played in front of Queen Victoria, who reportedly said “The game is very pretty to watch.”
The first game of lacrosse in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough was played in the spring of 1872 by the Peterborough Red Stockings, using rules published in 1860 by lacrosse advocate and dentist William George Beers. Five years later, Peterborough won its first championship. Since then, Peterborough has won 29 junior and senior national titles and more than 150 provincial titles including minor lacrosse.
A local committee headed by Tim Barrie, former championship goaltender and inductee into the 1998 Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, revealed the 150th anniversary logo earlier this year and announced a series of events coinciding with the 2022 lacrosse season.
The season has already begun with the recreational league the Boro Boys, youth field lacrosse, and junior teams preparing to take the field before the Century 21 Lakers senior team plays their first game, a home game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, on Thursday, June 2nd at 8 p.m. against the Cobourg Kodiaks.
The Lakers will be seeking their fourth consecutive national championship after a two-year absence of Major Series Lacrosse play due to the pandemic. The team will celebrate the 150th anniversary with a special ceremony at every home game.
For Lacrosse Day in Peterborough on Saturday, June 18th, all six Major Series Lacrosse teams will play in a triple-header at Peterborough Memorial Centre. The Brooklin Lacrosse Club will take on the Cobourg Nissan Kodiaks at 1 p.m., Oakville Rock will play against Owen Sound Lacrosse at 4 p.m., and the Lakers will challenge the Six Nations Chiefs at 7 p.m.
