# Rosabelle Sinclair

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{{Use American English|date=April 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox lacrosse player
| gender = 
| league= School
| team= [St Leonards School](/source/St_Leonards_School)
| nationality = 
| birth_date = 1890
| birth_place = [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire)
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1981|1890}}
| career_start =
| career_end =
| uslaxhof_year = 1992
}}

'''Rosabelle Sinclair''' (1890 – 1981), known as the affectionately as the "Grand Dame of Lacrosse", established the first [women's lacrosse](/source/women's_lacrosse) team in the United States. She was the first woman to be inducted into the [National Lacrosse Hall of Fame](/source/List_of_National_Lacrosse_Hall_of_Fame_members).<ref name=hof>{{cite web|url=http://www.lacrosse.org/museum/halloffame/view_profile.php?prof_id=189|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415060115/http://www.lacrosse.org/museum/halloffame/view_profile.php?prof_id=189|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-04-15|title=Rosabelle Sinclair Hall of Fame Biography|publisher=Lacrosse.org|access-date=2008-06-23}}</ref>

==Early life==
Sinclair was born in the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire) in 1890 and educated in Philadelphia, before attending [St Leonards School](/source/St_Leonards_School) in [St Andrews](/source/St_Andrews), where women's lacrosse had been introduced by [Louisa Lumsden](/source/Louisa_Lumsden).  Lumsden brought the game to Scotland in 1890 after watching a men's [lacrosse](/source/lacrosse) game between the Canghuwaya Indians and the [Montreal Lacrosse Club](/source/Montreal_Lacrosse_Club).<ref name=lumsden>{{cite web |url=http://www.stleonards-fife.org/Index.asp?MainID=4382 |title=History of Lacrosse at St Leonards |access-date=2008-05-01 |work=STLeonards-Fife.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506160603/http://www.stleonards-fife.org/Index.asp?MainID=4382 |archive-date=2008-05-06 }}</ref>

After leaving St Leonards School in 1910, Sinclair attended [Madame Bergman Österberg's College of Physical Training](/source/Martina_Bergman-%C3%96sterberg) in [Dartford, England](/source/Dartford%2C_England), where she was a classmate of fellow lacrosse coach [Cara Gascoigne](/source/Cara_Gascoigne). She then taught at an all-girls school in Yorkshire and in 1919 accepted a post at Chelsea Physical Training College. In 1922 she left for the [United States](/source/United_States).<ref>{{cite book |title=Women's Lacrosse: A Guide for Advanced Players and Coaches |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8QXZFgaZxBgC&q=Rosabelle+Sinclair&pg=PA1|last=Tucker |first=Janine |author2=Yakutchik, MaryAlice   |year=2008 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-8846-5 |pages=Page 1}}</ref>

==Lacrosse==
Sinclair arrived in the United States and taught gymnastics and games at Rosemary Hall School before becoming a physical education teacher at the [Bryn Mawr School](/source/Bryn_Mawr_School) in [Baltimore, Maryland](/source/Baltimore%2C_Maryland).  She introduced lacrosse to the all-girls school in 1926.  She would continue teaching there and serve as Athletic Director from 1925 to 1951.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brynmawrschool.org/about/history.aspx|title=History of Bryn Mawr School|publisher=brynmawrschool.org|access-date=2008-07-18|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701213048/http://brynmawrschool.org/about/history.aspx|archive-date=2008-07-01}}</ref>  Women's lacrosse differs greatly from the men's version, and with emphasis on stick skills and proficiency.  Sinclair believed the game should be played with feminine refinement, stating: 
{{blockquote|"Lacrosse, as girls play it, is an orderly pastime that has little in common with the men's tribal warfare version except the long-handled racket or crosse that gives the sport its name,  Its true that the object in both the men's and women's lacrosse is to send a ball through a goal by means of the racket, but whereas men resort to brute strength the women depend solely on skill."<ref name= coach/>|sign=Rosabelle Sinclair  }}

Sinclair's legacy remains as being responsible for the growth of women's lacrosse in the [United States](/source/United_States).<ref name= coach>{{cite book |title=Lacrosse: A History of the Game |url=https://archive.org/details/lacrossehistoryo0000fish|url-access=registration |quote=Rosabelle Sinclair. |last=Fisher |first=Donald M. |year=2002 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=0-8018-6938-2 |pages=200}}</ref>  In 1931, she helped form the United States Women's Lacrosse Association, which later was consolidated into [US Lacrosse](/source/US_Lacrosse).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uslacrosse.org/info/aboutus.phtml|title=About US Lacrosse|publisher=US Lacrosse|access-date=2008-07-18|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915151020/http://www.uslacrosse.org/info/aboutus.phtml|archive-date=2008-09-15}}</ref>  Even after her retirement from the Bryn Mawr School, she remained involved in the development of women's lacrosse.  In 1978, the [Bryn Mawr School](/source/Bryn_Mawr_School) renamed their athletic fields in honor of Sinclair<ref name=hof/> shortly before her death in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEFD61030F93AA15752C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=A Goalie Keeps Faith For an Iroquois Nation|last=Lipsythe|first=Robert|date=January 29, 1993|work=New York Times|access-date=2008-07-22}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.uslacrosse.org/womens_div/pdf/timeline.pdf A Women's Lacrosse Timeline]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, Rosabelle}}
Category:1890 births
Category:1981 deaths
Category:People educated at St Leonards School
Category:Women's lacrosse
Category:Scottish lacrosse players
Category:Bryn Mawr School people
Category:Women's lacrosse players

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Rosabelle Sinclair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosabelle_Sinclair) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosabelle_Sinclair?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.