Spread of the Game

The world's first official game was played at patrician Upper Canada College in 1867. Upper Canada College lost to the Toronto Cricket Club by a score of 3-1.

The field game is now played in Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, England and Scotland.

In the USA, the sport is popular in Maryland (where it became the official team sport in 2004), New York, New England and other areas along the eastern coast. In addition, its popularity has started spreading to the west coast and to the Midwest, spurred by the sport's increasing visibility in the media as well as the growth of college and high school programs and "pee wee" leagues throughout the country. In recent years, collegiate lacrosse at the Division I level has been dominated by a handful of universities, including The Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, University of Maryland, College Park, and University of Virginia.

There are currently 57 Division I Men's Lacrosse teams. In the 2004/2005 year there will be three teams playing in their innagural season; Robert Morris University, Bellarmine University, and St. John's University are new teams added for the 2004 season.

Lacrosse has been the official national summer sport of Canada since 1994, but it is popular chiefly in British Columbia and southern Ontario. Canada and the Czech Republic differ from other lacrosse-playing countries in preferring the box lacrosse variant of the game.