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Why is the city of Lacrosse
Wisconsin, named after a sport?

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The backstory links medieval
France, one of North America's

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oldest games and early travelers
to the region.

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Traditional lacrosse is a game
that's been played by Indigenous

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people across North America
for centuries.

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This game
has many different names

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among various native groups.
The Ho-Chunk call it caabna,

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for example.

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The first Europeans
who saw the game

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thought it looked similar
to a French game

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known as la soule a la crosse
that dates back to the 1100s.

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Soule was the ball
and crosse was the curved

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or hooked
stick used to move the ball.

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They called the native game
jeu de la crosse,

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the game of the curved stick.

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Eventually this was shortened
to just lacrosse.

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In the early 1800s,
the American explorer

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Zebulon Pike wrote

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about a prairie called “Le Cross
from a game of ball

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played frequently on it
by the Sioux Indians.”

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The name of La Crosse,
which was based on a medieval

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French game used by Europeans
to describe a traditional Native

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game, stuck around.