Box lacrosse 1998, the NLL entered into the Canadian market for the first time with the Ontario Raiders. Although 5 of the league's 9 teams are based in American cities, more than two-thirds of the players are Canadian. During play, a team consists of six players: a goaltender and five "runners". A runner is any non-goalkeeper position player, including forwards, transition players, and defenders. Runners usually specialize in one of these roles and substitute off the field when the ball moves from one end to the other. When the sport originated teams played with six runners. However, in 1953 the sixth runner,
History of lacrosse leagues developed for box lacrosse and college lacrosse. Two professional leagues also were created: In 1987 the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League was founded; it eventually became the Major Indoor Lacrosse League, and then the National Lacrosse League (NLL). In the summer of 2001, a professional field lacrosse league, known as Major League Lacrosse (MLL), was inaugurated. History of lacrosse Lacrosse has its origins in a tribal game played by eastern Woodlands Native Americans and by some Plains Indians tribes in what is now the United States of America and Canada. The game was extensively modified by European colonizers to