Canada’s Summer Game – Lacrosse at the Canada Games, 1969-1985
The Canadian Lacrosse Association defines box lacrosse as using the same rink as ice hockey.15 Lines are drawn on the floor to indicate different zones: defensive, centre, and attacking zones relative to the team’s opponent. Like hockey, each team uses 5 players and one goalkeeper. 13 additional players and one goalkeeper are allowed on the bench and players rotate after “shifts”. Players will use lacrosse sticks, shorter than those used for field lacrosse, to pass a rubber-like ball up the rink and attempt to throw it into the opposing team's goal. The red goals are 4’ high and 4’6” wide and surrounded by a “crease” that extends 24’ from the centre of the goal. Offensive players are not allowed within the crease. Unlike field hockey, goaltenders try to stop the ball with their body rather than just their stick – the differences in gear reflect this as box goaltenders wear excessive padding, and field goaltenders mostly only adopt headgear. All players wear protective equipment as contact is allowed and likely to occur. Players will try to disrupt the ball from one another and score the most goals by the end of three 20-minute stop-time periods. The modern National Lacrosse League uses slightly larger 4’x4’9” nets and consists of four 15-minute quarters.16
The Canada Summer Games of 1969 in Nova Scotia would be the first-time lacrosse of any variety was played in the province. For many Nova Scotians, it was their introduction to even seeing lacrosse in action. When Nova Scotia put together its box lacrosse team, most of the 300 men who showed up had never held a lacrosse stick or understood the sport.17 Understandably, the lacrosse-playing juggernauts of Ontario and British Columbia dominated the scene and would continue to do so for the next 16 years.
To level the competition of all sports, it was decided that athletes playing at a higher national or international level would be barred from the Games in the spirit of developing young individuals with lesser experience.18 This meant that lacrosse’s most popular athlete, Gaylord Powless, and his brother Gary who both played in the North American All-Indian Field Lacrosse Championship at Expo 67, would be ineligible for Games competition.19 The Games would continue to showcase box lacrosse to the rest of the nation, albeit restricted to men only and with limited Indigenous representation. However, box lacrosse would also continue to inspire the next great generation. Players such as Jamie Batley, one of the greatest lacrosse coaches, and the brothers, Gary and Paul Gait, a pair of the greatest lacrosse players, were all featured in the 1985 Canada Summer Games in Saint John, New Brunswick.
As much as box lacrosse at the Games promoted the sport and young players, the winds of popularity continued to change. Much like the highs and lows of lacrosse in the early 20th century, public opinion once again was changing, and time was dwindling for box lacrosse as a Games inclusion.