Box lacrosse The roots of indoor lacrosse are obscure, but its invention has been attributed to one Paddy Brennan, a field lacrosse player and referee from Montreal, who, being annoyed by the constant slowing of play from balls going out of bounds in the field game, experimented with indoor games at the Mount Royal Arena during the early 1920s. Joseph Cattarinich and Leo Dandurand, owners of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens in the 1920s, led the participating ice hockey arena owners to introduce the new sport. In the 1930s, 6 v 6 indoor lacrosse came to be played in the summer
Field lacrosse reduced the number of long sticks to three rather than the traditional four. Prior to the 2009 MLL season, after eight seasons, the league conformed to traditional field lacrosse rules and allowed a fourth long crosse. The MLL has been bolstered by a ten year television contract with ESPN in 2007. The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) is the international governing body of lacrosse and it oversees field, women's and box lacrosse competitions. In 2008, the "International Lacrosse Federation" and the "International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations" merged to form the FIL. The former "International Lacrosse Federation" was founded in