One of the hottest sportson Milwaukee’s lakefront originated in Ireland more than 2,000 years ago.
Called the fastest game on grass, hurling is a fusion of lacrosse, field hockey and soccer. Though played in America for more than a century, the sport has seen its popularity soar in recent years, with the country’s largest club found in Milwaukee. Starting with just 25 players in 1996, the Milwaukee Hurling Club now includes more than 200 hurlers.
Until recently, most players competing in U.S. hurling championships had come from Ireland. But Eamonn Kelly, who’s with the North American branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association, says that in the past decade, Irish immigration has stalled. That’s prompted clubs across the country to aggressively recruit and train American players.
This trend will help sustain clubs and increase the sport’s popularity nationally, says Joel Ingebrigtson, captain of Packy’s Dublin Blues, one of the many teams in Milwaukee’s club.
Played on a field slightly larger than a soccer pitch, a hurling game typically features two 25- to 35-minute halves. Each team fields a goalkeeper, six offensive players, two midfielders and six defenders. The sliothar (ball) cannot be picked up from the ground directly. The hurley (like a hockey stick with a wider, flattened end) must be used to roll, lift or flick the sliothar into the hand. Players score points when they hit the sliothar between the goal posts in one of two ways: over the crossbar (like a football field goal) or under the crossbar (like a soccer goal). Under the bar scores three points, while over the bar gets just one.
“There’s a little aspect of golf, baseball, running and soccer,” says Kate Cavanaugh, a first-year hurler and a senior at Nicolet High School.
Kelly credits the great success of Milwaukee’s club to its inclusiveness. It’s the nation’s only club where women play alongside men. It also has an unusually high number of Americans, with just three Irish-born players.
“An end to Irish domination of the sport could make it more popular in America,” says Karen Fink, administrative coordinator for the club. “We are a multiethnic society,” she says. “It’s important that it represents this.”
