dual personalities

Today we toast William George Beers (May 5, 1841 – December 26, 1900) who was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada’s first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the “father of modern lacrosse” for his work establishing the first set of playing rules for the game.

In 1860, Beers began to codify the first written rules of the modern game. Prior to this, all rules of the game needed to be decided prior to each game. Some of the rules established by Beers were the size of, and the use of a rubber lacrosse ball, that the lacrosse stick could be any length, but the pocket needed to be flat in the absence of a ball, length of the field to 200 yards (180 m), size of the goal and goal crease, twelve members of a team on the field at a time, and the length of a match to first to reach five goals, or lead by three. In the process of standardizing the game, Beers removed the spiritual and ritual components present in its predecessor, the First Nations game of baggataway, and was unapologetic in its appropriation: “Just as we claim as Canadian the rivers and lakes and land once owned exclusively by Indians, so we now claim their field game as the national field game of our dominion”.

Did you know that field lacrosse was a medal sport in the 1904 and the 1908 Summer Olympics? It will be again in 2028! This time around the appropriation of lacrosse from the Native Americans will no doubt have to be recognized by some sort of “game acknowledgement”, but c’est la vie.

(Ball Players by George Catlin)

Recently an ADT tech came to my house to update my alarm system and he noticed this photo on my wall. He asked if it was my son and if he played lacrosse. I said, yes, it was, and he said that he played lacrosse and we had a nice conversation about the sport. He had learned to play at Matthews-Dickey Boys Club in the city and then played at Lutheran North. Character-building, I tell ya! It’s a small world.

Praise the Lord.