Minto Cup

Governor General Minto, an ardent advocate of sports, donated the Minto Cup for senior amateur lacrosse in 1901. Lacrosse, whose acknowledged masters were its Indigenous originators, began to enjoy wide popularity among Canadians during the 1860s, after William George Beers codified the modern game and the National Lacrosse Association was formed in Kingston, Ont. British Columbia became another hotbed of lacrosse, where an often violent rivalry existed between Vancouver and New Westminster, which had won the Minto Cup a number of times.