by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Today’s Super Bowl 60 clash between the AFC champion New England Patriots and the NFC title winning Seattle Seahawks saw the Pacific Northwest squad capture its second NFL crown, following a 2014 title, in a dominating 29-13 victory. This post takes us back a century to an entirely different title game, this one involving what was called a national championship in women’s lacrosse, played at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The game involves the carrying of a hard rubber ball in a long-handled racquet with a wide mesh end or passing it between these with the intent to place the ball into a net about the width of a hockey goal, these set about 100 yards apart in a field with dimensions like that for football.
According to World Lacrosse, the sport’s origins date back to 12th century North America when indigenous people played a version known as stickball that, over the centuries, morphed into the modern iteration. The name came from French Jesuit missionaries who saw the game being played, though the first organization under the name was created in Montreal in 1856, with lacrosse becoming an important sport in Canada and the spread to England, Scotland and the United States, among other nations.
Schools and colleges gradually picked up lacrosse in the last several centuries 19th century and, in 1904 at St. Louis, it was added as a sport at the Olympic Summer Games. Women began playing the sport at St. Leonard’s School in St. Andrews, Scotland with the first match played there in late March 1890. In 1905, a women’s club was organized in southern England and the sport became popular among females in the United Kingdom.
It was at the beginning of 1926 that Rosabelle Sinclair, formerly a student athlete at St. Leonard’s, introduced lacrosse while a newly minted athletic director at Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. In short order, with teams established in Pasadena and Los Angeles , a “national championship” match was scheduled as part of a midwinter picnic for Canadian visitors and emigres (picnics for locals coming from various American states were extremely popular at the time), sponsored by Canadian and American tourist organizations, and held at the Coliseum in the Angel City on 6 February 1928. How the game could be called “national” when it was played among locals is an obvious question.
A press photo from International Newsreel and in the Homestead’s collection shows a quartet of players, two from each side, and a referee in a close-up action shot, while, in the background, large sections of the bleachers, totally empty, and one of the arched entries of the stadium are in view. The 1 February edition of the Venice Vanguard reported that, during the upcoming contest, the players would “throw angry glances one to the other, and sticks are swung with deliberate intention.”
Notably, it was remarked that most of the Los Angeles team were from Santa Monica and Venice high schools and “which was in reality a combination of that squad of last year and the Bay District team which competed last season.” Moreover, the paper commented that “the Greater Angelenos have practiced for the coming battle since summer [1925] on the grounds of that beloved enemy, Samohi [Santa Monica High School].” This indicates that, despite the common understanding that the firs organized women’s team was Bryn Mawr in January 1926, the Los Angeles squad predated it by around half a year.
A photo from the same day’s issue of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, showed, under the title of “Ah, Little Apple, Come to Mama,” Los Angeles club players Elizabeth Ashe and Billie Gorman tangled up as they practiced at the Santa Monica campus for the upcoming title match. Over in Pasadena, that city’s Post of the 2nd informed readers that “some of the foremost women lacrosse players in the world will be numbered on the Greater Pasadena District Team, the Algonquins, when the latter meet the Iroquois (a nod to the indigenous beginnings of the sport) of Los Angeles.”
Among the Crown City-area stalwarts were Sybil Clement-Brown, formerly of London University squad; Virginia Hall, who played for a Boston team called the Hurons (also predating the Baltimore organization), and her sister Ruth, who had two years with that Massachusetts team; Ethel Torrey, who was a key player on a championship squad from Liverpool, England, and whose sister Louise was on the team; Marie Hough, said to have been on a college team; and Lillie Brenner, a multi-sport athlete.
The Pasadena Star-News of the same date noted that “two tribes of the Six Nation Clan, made famous by history, are now on the warpath and will climax their respective tribal activities” at the 12th edition of the Canadian picnic for expats and the third including tourists from our northern neighbor “in a peaceful invasion to entertain some 65,000 people.” The paper added that the championship was “under the auspices of the Ladies’ Lacrosse League of America,” but it corrected the Record that the Pasadena team name was the Hurons.
On the 3rd, the Los Angeles Record commented that “with a national championship at stake, it is expected that 50,000 lacrosse fans” would turn out to watch the contest,” while it also noted that “Pasadena copped the prize last year and it is expected that they will repeat.” Yet, the paper remarked that the Los Angeles aggregation “has strengthened their squad by the addition of several outside players and they expect to defeat the present title holders.” Meanwhile, that day’s Illustrated Daily News provided another practice photo of Los Angeles players under the heading of “The Gentler Sex? Don’t Be Silly.”
In its edition the following day, the Times published the full rosters of the squads, though it erroneously added that it was the Iroquois who was the incumbent national title holder, and the colors, which were “old gold and black” for the Los Angeles team and black, green and white for the Hurons. Further, it was noted that “the winners will become the possessors of the Canadian National Railways trophy.
The Los Angeles Express, also of the 4th, remarked that the competitors were “entering into the last lap of their respective training grind,” this involving “light drills and chalk talks.” The morning of the match was to involve “secret workouts” in the morning of the contest before gates were opened to admit the crowds.
An addition to the program, as reported by the Hollywood Citizen-News that day, as it stated that “archery and lacrosse, the old but not lost art[s] of the Redmen of yesterday” were to form the sports of the day, the former kicking off the program. Those participating in the archery portion were from Canada and England, as well as the “Girls’ Archery Club of the Southern Branch, University of California,” later renamed the University of California, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archery Club and the Japanese-American Archery Club.
More events were included as the Times of the 5th observed that “another feature will be the number of women entering events heretofore considered exclusively for men, including long distance running, shot putting and the like.” John Hooper, the president of the Canadian Tourists’ Association and head of the committee overseeing the execution of the event, announced that the expected attendance was some 75,000 persons.
Elsewhere in the paper, it offered the colorful observation that, “demonstrating conclusively that all girls of today are not flapperistic leanings and that they can take more exacting exercise than dabbing powder on drug-store complexions, [the] feminine lacrosse artists” were readying for their contest. Another Illustrated Daily News photo depicted Los Angeles teammates Isobelle Stewart and Laura Das, “two star girl lacrosse players” mixing it up at practice. The Citizen-News of the same day commented that
In lacrosse, as it is played by the maidens, it is not uncommon to see the lasses lose their temper. They get a real madness at times, and their rage is thrilling to behold.
Being a morning paper, the Express offered some pre-match coverage, including a photo of a quartet of UC women archers in motion with bows drawn and arrows at the ready for launching. It also informed readers that lacrosse, comprising four periods of 15 minutes each, with a dozen players on each side on the field at any one time, “is said to be fastest game in the world.” In discussing how a morning spring among senior men took place, one of its competitors, who was a spry 86 years of age, told the paper, “the climate is better than medicine” and “I feel just like a 2-year old.”
The game day edition of the Illustrated Daily News provided a history of lacrosse, with the report coming from New York City that “not only is lacrosse the oldest known game in North America, but it is also one of the fastest in existence.” The long-handled wide-ended racquet was called “la crosse” by the French because it resembled the crozier of a Roman Catholic bishop. The account added that,
While the savage Indians played it as a war maneuver game, it came into significance as a test of athletic ability among the tribes long before the white man took it up as a major sport.
Canada adopted lacrosse years ago. Professionalism has been cut out and it is a purely amateur sport. It has been played in the United States since 1881, when it was organized in the colleges in the East . . .
Feminine lacrosse started in England, and in the British Isles at present there are 135 girls’ teams in schools, colleges and universities alone. In this country, besides the Ladies’ Lacrosse League of America, with six teams, there are expert clubs of feminine athletics playing lacrosse at Bryn Mawr, Sargent College and other leading colleges.
In its number of the 7th, the Times reported that the attendance for the event was north of 60,000 and it was noted that “the morning was devoted to music and addresses by prominent men and women and the afternoon was given over to sporting events. Performances were presented by municipal bands from Santa Monica and Venice, as well as artists from radio station KHJ, owned by the paper, and broadcast to listeners.
In the archery competition, the Los Angeles and Japanese-American clubs held a competition, with the former prevailing by about 500 points and winning a trophy provided by the Dyas Company which sold sporting goods. In between the quarters of the lacrosse match, Marguerite Rochelle put on an ice-skating demonstration, while the University of Southern California held something of an intramural mile run, with the victor being Lester Hellman, who finished at 4 minutes, 40 seconds.
In remarks that are notable given current strained relations between the two nations, John H. Bell, formerly premier of Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada and once a member of the British Parliament, “congratulated [the two nations] upon the fact that never has a gun been trained by the inhabitants of either land upon the peace-loving citizens of the other.”
Almost all of the speakers, of which there were seven, “congratulated the audience [of those residing in the region] upon having escaped the rigors of the cold northern clime and upon having found an earthly paradise in which to live.” Hooper, head of his organization for a decade, “said that in point of numbers and enthusiasm, the reunion surpassed that of three years ago at Detroit, which was attended by more than 50,000 persons.”
In its sports section, the Times reported that,
An aggregation of Orange and Black clad Amazons representing the Greater Los Angeles district girls’ lacrosse team, whacked and passed and battled their way to a 6-to-2 victory over the Pasadena Hurons after a spirited contest . . .
The Iroquois, as the Los Angeles team was known, flashed a superior brand of teamwork throughout, but the Pasadenans fought valiantly all the way . . .
Laura Das, shown in one of the practice photos, was the star of the contest, scoring four of her team’s half-dozen goals, while Elizabeth Swan was “a veritable demon at advancing the ball through the Hurons’ defense. The account continued that “numerous spills and thrills occur during the process of trying to make a goal and bruises and banged heads are taken for granted by the players.”
The Pasadena squad got on the board quickly as Lucille Brenner “took the ball at the opening play [a center-field face off] and raced through the surprised Iroquois and netted a goal before the tilt was a minute old.” From there, the Los Angeles team played superlative defense and it was not until the fourth and final period that Pasadena scored again with the Hall sisters combining for that, though it was mentioned that “in the fourth period both sides began to tire from the strenuousness of the play with the result that the scoring became more frequent.”
An action photo from the contest, labeled “BE CAREFUL, GIRLS!” showed a scrum of players with referee Eddie Hume “right in the midst of the melee” and apparently “about to be crowned by a flock of flying sticks,” but he managed to emerge unscathed. The Record of the 8th offered a quartet of photos, including of archer Mae Phares, Roche and her figure skating, two Venice High School players, Gorman and Tillie Noble, for the Iroquois in action, with the last featuring a teammate, Margaret Richards, “powdering dimpled knees before entering the fray.”
A week after the game, the Los Angeles team was presented “by famous motion picture stars” with their trophy, as were those in other field contests at the event, at the ballroom at the Venice Pier. As for our highlighted photo from the Homestead’s holdings, it is a nice visual document for this example of how women participating in regional sports was growing in popularity and media coverage, part of the broader evolution of their involvement in areas that not long before were considered closed to them.