field lacrosse Field lacrosse is a full contact sport, full contact outdoor men's sport played with ten players on each team. The sport originated among indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans, and the modern rules of field lacrosse were initiall ...

game was played between Canada and Great Britain at the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

. The game was tied 9-9 in the fourth period, before Canada scored 5 straight goals to pull ahead. Canada won 14-10 to earn their second of two gold medals, the only lacrosse gold medals given out in the Olympic Games.

Background

The game marked the second appearance of lacrosse at the Olympics, the first being at the

1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 29 August to 3 September 1904, as part of an extended s ...

. Only two teams competed, one fewer than in 1904:

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

entered a team but withdrew before the draw. Both teams held try-outs to select the players to represent their country. The Official Report notes that it was the "first time in the history of Canadian lacrosse a team had been selected from all parts of the Dominion," with players from clubs "as far apart as

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

."Official Report, p. 205. The report also credits the British team as "by far the strongest ever put into the field" by England, though admits the sport was "not yet as well-known as it ought to be on this side of the Atlantic."

Medal table

Participants

Source:

Results

;Scoring summary *FIRST QUARTER (5-1): Canada: Brennan (2), Turnbull, unknown (2); England: Buckland *SECOND QUARTER: (6-2) Canada: unknown; England: Jones *THIRD QUARTER (9-7): Canada: Turnbull (2), unknown; England: Jones (2), Buckland (3) *FOURTH QUARTER (14-10): Canada: Brennan (3), Gorman (2); England: Jones, unknown (2)

References

Sources