a elie | Gem tee el |||) | ey, Favorite sports of the early days By BERT WHYTE forts flourished in North America long before an adventurous : ; Fe j fellow named Christobal Colon (better known as .Christopher Columbus) landed at San Salvador in 1492. Oldest .organized sport in America is lacrosse. Probably the first white man to see it played was Jacques Cartier, who while Sailing up the St. Lawrence noticed Iroquois Indians of the Six Nations playing a war-like game with curved netted sticks and a all, They called it “Baggataway” but later Jesuit priests gave it © name “lacrosse” because the Playing stick resembled a bish- °P’s crozier. The Iroquois, who invented _wanada’s national game, used the SPort as a training measure for War. There weren't rigid rules M those days — sometimes as Many as a thousand players took Part in tribal games, which on Sceasion lasted for days and were lstinguished for their fierce- Ness, Broken noses, arms and €gs were common—and fatali- ties were not unknown. Early French and English set- tlers did not take up the sport Until about 1840, but it was the Custom of the white men before at period to watch Indian teams Compete. This led to disaster or residents of a British fort at Ichillimackinac in 1763. It was the king’s birthday, June and the British garrison at the fort was celebrating. The Brit- Ish had been having “trouble” With the Ottawa tribe because le Indians did not like being Icked off their’ own territory, Ut on this day peace seemed to ‘eign, for the Ottawas, led by their chief, Pontiac, had started fame of lacrosse on'a flat - Stretch of ground outside the Stockade, The garrison revellers came Ut to watch, leaving the gates °Pen. Back and forth raged the °Pposing teams, imperceptibly Tawing closer and closer to the, iprtress, Suddenly the ball was thew” inside, with war whoops dr, bY Opposing teams and hun- Teds of Indian spectators rush- rece after it, and seized the gar- foot before the surprised de- oe realized what was hap- ing Lacrosse became popular Ong settlers in Upper and Low- Q anada about 110 years ago, oot the Indian style of play was on changed. ‘The field was Ortened and the number of “ontestants reduced to 20 and me 12 men a side. Prior to Con- deration several leagues had first B.C. team fo win the Canadia sprung up, with games arranged at irregular intervals between settlers and towns. It is a fitting coincidence that in 1867, the year of Confedera- tion in Canada, the National La- erosse Association of Canada was founded. Thus Canada’s national sport, conducted under organiz- ed rules of play, is exactly as old as our country itself. * In these days, when sports fans have only to switch on their TV sets to watch baseball, wrestling, horse racing, boxing or foothall, it may seem that the sports fans of 1867 were missing a lot in the way of entertainment. But this is far from true. What sports in addition to la- crosse flourished in our country 86 years ago? Well, there were track and field, harness racing, horse racing, snow-shoeing, curl- ing, golf, cricket, skating: (but not hockey), and boxing. Speaking of boxing, back in those days Canada was the scene of three world heavyweight championship bouts — something we haven't witnessed since. Prizefighting was illegal in the United States, so the bare knuckle boys and their followers would charter a ship, sail across Lake Erie and pitch a ring on the sand at Long Point or Fort Erie. The referee would draw a line across the middle of the ring and call the fighters to “toe the scratch:” A knockdown con- stituted the-end of-a round, and fighters were allowed 30 seconds to “come to scratch” before he- ing considered knoeked out. The greatest heavyweight bat- tle ever staged on Canadian soil was between John Morrissey, the American champion, and John C. Heenan, “The Benica Boy,” at Long Point.. A few years later Morrissey became a U.S. con- gressman, a power in Tammahy politics, and the builder of the first race track at Saratoga Springs. The popularity of horse racing (both flat and harness racing) on this continent antedates the American Revolution.. Oldest major stake event in North Am- erica is the Queen’s Plate which began at Woodbine in Toronto “in 1860, seven years before Con- federation. Even older is the Quebec Queen’s Plate, which was first run at Three Rivers in 1836, on a grass track. During the past 117 years it has shifted its In 1908, the New Westminster lacrosse team — later the famous “Salmonbellies” — became the n Lacrosse Championship. site to Quebec, Ste. Hyacinthé; Sherbrooke, and finally to Mon- treal. Montreal and Quebec had roof ed rinks prior to Confederation, but organized hockey did not appear on the scene until the 1890’s. Speéd skating was popu- lar, however, and history records that in 1859 officers of the Mon- treal Garrison raced to Quebée, a feat which hasn’t been dupli- cated to this day. od, Then there was football, Eng lish soccer and later rugby. Thé Montreal Football Club was formed inj 1868." os From the Indians came the sport of canoeing, and paddling races were popular with the early French and English settlers. In all these hectic sports activi- ties British Columbia played little part, for at Confedération the population of this province was only about 10,000, and B.C. did not. join the Dominion of Canada until July 20, 1871. * An interesting footnote: Niné years before B.C. entered :Con- federation, Amor De Cosmos, the leader of the movement for Confederation, presented a re- solution at a public meeting. in Victoria asserting that “an essen- tial condition to’ such admission to the Confederation should be the construction by the _Domin- ‘jon government, within two years, of a transcontinental wag- on road connecting Lake Superior and the head of navigation on the lower Fraser.” Hot rod enthusiasts of 1953-— ' and ordinary motorists — can ruefully reflect, as we approach a federal election on August 10, that B.C. has been a part of Canada since . 1871, but we haven’t got a decent “‘wagon road” across the country yet! PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 3, 1953 — PAGE 11 Se aT