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"You have played hard this season, and as you look to the future remember the moments when you were a hero---when you became part of something larger than yourself--when you eliminated can't form your mindset. These are the moments that will inspire you to reach higher as they remind you that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are" ---- Susan Stewart (Georgetown University Field Hockey and Lacrosse Captain) Histories of My Favorite Sports
One of the world's most popular games, field hockey is also one of the world's oldest competitive team sports. Evidence of games played with a ball and stick date back over 4,000 years to the Nile Valley Egypt, and similar games were played by civilizations ranging from the Greeks and Romans to the Ethiopians and Aztecs. The modern game of field hockey evolved in England during the 19th century and led to the creation of the sport's international federation, the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) in 1924. After Constance Applebee introduced the sport to the United States in 1901, the United States Field Hockey Association was formed in 1922.The Olympic Games included men's field hockey on the official program for the first time in 1908, and women's field hockey earned a spot on the program in 1980. Hockey's most coveted international prize, the World Cup is held every four years with 16 men's and 16 women's teams competing for the title of World Champion. The first men's World Cup was played in 1971 with the women's event added in 1974. Links: USA Field Hockey, Brine, Longstreth
With a history that spans centuries, lacrosse is the oldest sport in North America. Rooted in Native American religion, lacrosse was often played to resolve conflicts, heal the sick, and develop strong, virile men. To Native Americans, lacrosse is still referred to as "The Creator's Game." Ironically, lacrosse also served as a preparation for war. Legend tells of as many as 1,000 players per side, from the same or different tribes, who took turns engaging in a violent contest. Contestants played on a field from one to 15 miles in length, and games sometimes lasted for days. Some tribes used a single pole, tree or rock for a goal, while other tribes had two goalposts through which the ball had to pass. Balls were made out of wood, deerskin, baked clay or stone. The evolution of the Native American game into modern lacrosse began in 1636 when Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary, documented a Huron contest in what is now southeast Ontario, Canada. At that time, some type of lacrosse was played by at least 48 Native American tribes scattered throughout what is now southern Canada and all parts of the United States. French pioneers began playing the game avidly in the 1800s. Canadian dentist W. George Beers standardized the game in 1867 with the adoption of set field dimensions, limits to the number of players per team and other basic rules. New York University fielded the nation's first college team in 1877, and Philips Academy, Andover (Massachusetts), Philips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) and the Lawrenceville School (New Jersey) were the nation's first high school teams in 1882. There are 400 college and 1,200 high school men's lacrosse teams from coast to coast. The first women's lacrosse game was played in 1890 at the St. Leonard's School in Scotland. Although an attempt was made to start women's lacrosse at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1914, it was not until 1926 that Miss Rosabelle Sinclair established the first women's lacrosse team in the United States at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland. Men's and women's lacrosse were played under virtually the same rules, with no protective equipment, until the mid-1930s. At that time, men's lacrosse began evolving dramatically, while women's lacrosse continued to remain true to the game's original rules. Men's and women's lacrosse remain derivations of the same game today, but are played under different rules. Women's rules limit stick contact, prohibit body contact and, therefore, require little protective equipment. Men's lacrosse rules allow some degree of stick and body contact, although violence is neither condoned nor allowed. Field lacrosse is sometimes perceived to be a violent and dangerous game, however, injury statistics prove otherwise. While serious injuries can and do occur in lacrosse, the game has evolved with an emphasis on safety, and the rate of injury is comparatively low. Links: US Lacrosse, E-Lacrosse, Brine, Longstreth
As you are reading this on the World Wide Web, far be it from me to deny claims that soccer was invented by the Chinese, Greeks or Romans. However, the fact is that the rules of the game of soccer we use today are due to the young men at England's schools and universities in the mid nineteenth century. They produced the codes of law that were necessary before two teams could compete on equal terms. If you were transported back to the 1860s, you could be forgiven for assuming that the group of young men playing with a large muddy object in open fields were engaged in a game of rugby (or American football) rather than soccer, or maybe just a general brawl! If a player caught the ball, he could run with it until tripped or hacked to the ground; "hacking" was a sharp kick to the shins. If the ball was on the ground, both sets of players would form a scrum round the ball and attempt to move it forwards. A participant admitted that "frequently, rough play was engaged in" and you can imagine that tempers were short in the general melee. Another account described the players "as a set of harmless lunatics, who amused themselves by kicking one another's shins, but did no great harm to the public at large". The public schools took the lead in writing down the rules of the game for others to follow. However, each school had different ideas on the size of the pitch, the size and shape of the ball, how much handling was allowed, and whether or not hacking was permitted. The early soccer clubs would have adopted whatever practices suited them best. The first "club" (as distinct from a school or university ) was the Sheffield club, formed in 1857. Sheffield adopted a set of eleven rules. These were based, we believe, on the laws in use in the public schools and at Cambridge. Pushing with the hands was allowed, but not hacking or tripping. Running with the ball in the hands (as practiced at Rugby school) was not allowed. However, the ball could be caught, provided it had not touched the ground; a free kick then followed (similar to the "mark" in today's rugby football). The ball could also be pushed on with the hand. There were no off-side rules, so players known as "kick-throughs" were positioned permanently in the opponents' half. There was no limit on team size, and whatever size or shape of ball that happened to be handy was used. Referees were unnecessary, as the two captains would settle any dispute. In tracing the history of the game, there are three sets of laws in particular that a made a significant contribution to today's game. They are Cambridge (1848), Sheffield (1857), Uppingham (1862) and the fledgling Football Association in 1863. Remember that one set of rules do not supersede another; it was up to the clubs (or the "association" to which they belonged) to decide which set to adopt. It was the eventual merger of the rules of Sheffield and the Football Association in 1878 that provided the platform for the growth of the game world-wide. This was formalized in 1882, when the "International Board" was created to look after the rules. To begin with, the International Board consisted of two representatives from each of the the four United Kingdom associations, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Today, the Board consists of four representatives nominated by FIFA, and one from each of the four UK associations Links: US Soccer, FIFA, The Soccer Store, American Youth Soccer Organization
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