Box lacrosse

Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. Box lacrosse is traditionally played on an ice hockey rink once the ice has been removed or covered. The playing area is called a box, in contrast to the open playing field of field lacrosse. Box lacrosse is played between two teams of five players and one goalie each. The object of the game is to use a lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an effort to score by shooting a solid rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent's goal.

The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse.

While there are 62 total members of World Lacrosse, only fifteen have competed in international box lacrosse competition. Only Canada, the Haudenosaunee Nationals and the United States have finished in the top three places at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. The most prestigious domestic competition is the National Lacrosse League.

Lacrosse is a traditional indigenous people's game and was first encountered by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. Lacrosse for centuries was seen as a key element of cultural identity and spiritual healing to the people of Turtle Island. It originated as a field game and was adopted first by Canadian, American, and English athletes as a field game, eventually settling on a 10 v 10 format.

Box lacrosse is a modern version of the game that was invented in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. The roots of indoor lacrosse are obscure, but its invention has been attributed to one Paddy Brennan, a field lacrosse player and referee from Montreal, who, being annoyed by the constant slowing of play from balls going out of bounds in the field game, experimented with indoor games at the Mount Royal Arena during the early 1920s.

Joseph Cattarinich and Leo Dandurand, owners of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens in the 1920s, led the participating ice hockey arena owners to introduce the new sport. In the 1930s, 6 v 6 indoor lacrosse came to be played in the summer in unused hockey rinks. Canadians adopted the new version of the sport quickly. Eventually, it became the more popular version of the sport in Canada, supplanting field lacrosse. The form was also adopted as the primary version of the game played on Native American reservations in the US and Canada by Iroquois and other Native peoples. It is the only sport in which the American indigenous people are sanctioned to compete internationally, participating as the Iroquois Nationals. However, many field lacrosse enthusiasts viewed the new version of the sport with negativity.

The first professional box lacrosse games were held in 1931. That summer, the arena owners formed the International Lacrosse League, featuring four teams: the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Cornwall Colts. The league lasted only two seasons. In the wake of the original International Lacrosse League opened the American Box Lacrosse League featuring six teams: two in New York City, and one each in Brooklyn, Toronto, Boston, and Baltimore. The league played to small crowds on outdoor fields such as Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, before closing midway through its inaugural season. Lacrosse was officially declared Canada's National Summer Sport with the passage of the National Sports Act (Bill C-212) on May 12, 1994.

The first box lacrosse match conducted in Australia came about as part of a fund raising appeal for the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. The Victorian Lacrosse Association was approached by the appeal committee to stage a lacrosse match as part of a multi sport carnival at the Plaza (Wattle Path Palais) ballroom at St Kilda on 1 July 1931. After a lightning six-a-side (outdoor) tournament format was successfully carried out a few weeks prior, it was decided to play six-a-side for this exhibition game between MCC and a composite team from other clubs, with players wearing rubber shoes and using a softer ball for the match. Newspaper articles at the time suggest that the sport may have even been created in Australia, with P. J. Lally of the famous Canadian lacrosse stick manufacturing company requesting a copy of the rules of the game from the VLA Secretary. By 1933, box lacrosse matches were being played in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. This new version of the game however did not overtake the traditional version of lacrosse in popularity in Australia as happened in Canada.