Sport Council

How the World Helped Shape

Canada's sport culture

Sport is a common language that can break down barriers. It brings people of different backgrounds together, transcends boundaries and provides a means of exchange and understanding.

Locally we see great diversity in the origins of the sports we play.

Lacrosse, also called 'The Creator's Game' is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of

North America as early as the 12th century. In the 1840s, Europeans became interested in the game. The first recorded match between

Europeans and members of the Mohawk tribe happened in August 1844. In 1856, the Montreal Lacrosse Club was formed in Quebec.

Golf - While the modern game of golf originated in 15th-century

Scotland, the game's ancient origins are unclear and much debated.

Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica, in which participants used a bent stick to hit a stuffed leather ball. There is evidence that the roots of the game sprouted in the small town of Loenen aan de Vecht in the Netherlands when it was played there in 1297.

Rugby - Rugby is said to have originated at Rugby School in

Warwickshire, England, in 1823 when during a game of football,

William Webb Ellis decided to pick up a ball and go with it.

Curling - The origin of curling traces back to 16th century Scotland, where the sport was played on frozen ponds and lochs. The first recorded match took place in 1541 when a notary recorded a challenge between a monk at and a relative of the abbott.

Baseball - Baseball probably descended from two games from

England. The first is a game called rounders that was a children’s game that came to New England with the colonists, and the second is cricket. The foundation of modern baseball started in 1845 when a group of men in New York formed the New York Knickerbocker

Baseball Club.

Soccer - Games similar to soccer can be dated all the way back to 2,500 B.C. in Ancient Egypt, where people kicked a ball around during the feast of the fertility. In China, from 476 B.C. to 221 B.C., people played a sport called cuju, which roughly translates to “kick the ball with foot. ” The point of the game was to kick a leather ball stuffed with feathers through a cloth hung between two posts. They could use any part of their body, except for their hands. Soldiers used to play it in order to keep in shape. A similar game was played in

Ancient Rome as well. There were 27 players on each team and they only had to get the ball in the other team’s goal.

Sports and sporting events have the power to bring people and cultures together. Sport is a great unifier.

Did You Know?