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Lacrosse a key part of city's history

People are always intrigued by the game of lacrosse and its place in Canada's cultural makeup as a sport adapted from that played by the First Nations of what is now central Canada and north central United States. In this area of B.C.

People are always intrigued by the game of lacrosse and its place in Canada's cultural makeup as a sport adapted from that played by the First Nations of what is now central Canada and north central United States. In this area of B.C., people often look for background information about the game in the early history of the Royal City.

Not long ago, a person requested help with a family story of buying a lacrosse stick in this city in the late 1880s or early 1890s. They wondered if that was possible and how the sticks would have gotten to New Westminster.

We assured them that lacrosse had started in this city by that time and that there are several references to a shipment of lacrosse sticks coming out on a very early CPR train from eastern Canada.

Another person, following up on an old letter regarding a visit in Victoria in the late 1890s, wondered about a comment about "a game that apparently came from the Indians" being played in Beacon Hill park. The writer of the letter thought the game was interesting, but he had never come across it in his travels.

Lacrosse is definitely part of the history of that well-known Victoria park, with one particular photo of a large crowd watching a lacrosse game there.

A third inquiry was from a student who was reading about the development of the CPR across "Canada" and wondered what the rail line had contributed to the locations along the route. She had noted how housing and business seemed to follow the local SkyTrain line and was considering a project to look at the CPR's influence - could something like a sport have followed the rail line. Colleagues of ours had, years ago, looked into exactly this type of thing happening across the Prairies, and we hope the student carries the idea further in a new study.

The strong First Nations cultural aspect of lacrosse history was part of a request just a week ago from a representative of German National Public Television in Los Angeles.

They were planning to be in this area where one of their reporters would "experience" the game of lacrosse ,courtesy of the B.C. Lacrosse Association and the under-19 field lacrosse team.

We were asked to help with some history as well as the heritage of this pastime.

These folks had so many questions about the game, its heritage and the First Nations connection.

Eventually they had their interview, their questions satisfactorily answered and a lot of images videotaped.

Katherine FreundHainsworth, a representative for the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, working on arranging the hall's collections, opened the hall and the German TV crew was thrilled.

Last week, folks from German TV were able to take a bit of our national sport of summer home with them.