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NCAA Lacrosse Championship
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TBT: 1977 NCAA Lacrosse Championship – Video

We love old NCAA Lacrosse Championship videos and this one is a real winner!

The year was 1977. The event was the NCAA D1 Men’s Lacrosse National Championship. The teams were Cornell and Johns Hopkins. The game was played at UVA and over 10,000 fans came out to see this contest. Frank Gifford was one of the announcers. To make this memory even sweeter, we have the video!

Cornell was 12-0 entering this game and coming off of a National Championship season in 1976 but Hopkins had a tough squad in ’77 and this was a highly anticipated battle for lacrosse supremacy.

Here are the starters for Hopkins back in the day: Goalie – Kevin Mahon, Defense – Mark Greenberg, Curt Ahrendsen, and Mike Connor, Midfield – Bob DeSimone, Bob Maimone, and Tom Myrick, Attack – Mike O’Neil, Frank Catrone, and Rich Hirsch. A TON of these guys were from somewhere in New York State. Henry Ciccarone was the head coach for Hop.

Here are the starters for Cornell back in the day: Goalie – Dan Mackesey, Defense – Chris Kane, Bob Katz, and Frank Muehleman, Midfield – Dave Bray, Craig Jaeger, and Bob Henrickson, Attack – Tom Marino, Steve Page, and Eamon McEneaney. If you thought Hop had a lot of NY State guys, just wait for Cornell! The Big Red was coached back then by lacrosse legend Richie Moran.

1977 NCAA Lacrosse Championship

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Here is what’s kind of amazing about this Cornell team…

Ned Harkness was the head hockey and lacrosse coach at Cornell in the 60s and won national titles in ’67 and 70′. Eventually, he stepped down from the lacrosse position and Richie Moran took over, creating an absolutely legendary program.

Moran had strong Long Island roots (coaching at Manhasset before Cornell) and brought in a ton of LI guys. Marino, and Jaeger were both teammates at Massapequa. McEneaney came from Sewanhaka, and a ton of the other guys were LI bred as well. Of course Hop was also recruiting on Long Island, and their top player, Mike O’Neil was also from Massapequa. That high school program must have been unreal to watch in the mid to late 70s! Unreal talent!

Important To Watch!

With all the discussion about stick technology these days, I find games like this to be incredibly interesting. The ball is on the ground more, checks dislodge the ball with ease, and there is a ton of passing and transition play. It’s exciting and fast paced lacrosse. And with a 16-8 score, scoring goals doesn’t seem to be a problem!

Should we go back to non-offset heads with a 1″ thick sidewall? Would that make our game better? That’s what they were playing with in 1977 and lacrosse still seems pretty darn awesome. Something to think about!