[
HIS SPACE] editorial Confessions of a I
was really impressed watching Loyola beat Duke 13-8 on March 10 at the Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore. It was the fifth of nine straight wins to start the season (at press time), as the Greyhounds enjoyed their best start since 1999.
Could this team be the best I’ve ever seen at Loyola? When I use “Loyola” and “ever” in the same sentence, it’s no snap decision. It may be that I’ve watched Loyola play lacrosse longer than anybody alive. I grew up in Loyola’s neighborhood. As a kid, I walked over there after school and watched the lacrosse team. Games. Practices. All of it excited me then. With an introduction to lacrosse like that, it’s no wonder I learned to love it. Loyola was not very good in those days. I didn’t know it though. What does a 10-year-old know about levels of play?
I rooted hard when my heroes in green and grey played against big, tough guys from places named Swarthmore and Springfield and CCNY. (Bet you didn’t know Loyola ever played Springfield and CCNY.) Through the 1940s and early ‘50s, Loyola had few very good players. To this day, Loyola has no one in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Charles Street cohort Johns Hopkins has 64.
34 LACROSSE MAGAZINE May 2012>>
Bobby McElroy was a good one for Loyola in the 1940s. All-American Gerry Courtney could have played for anybody — same as Ray Wittelsberger, Frank Kimmel, Tommy Wagner and later John Stewart. But a major team needs more than one or two major players. Fast forward to the late ‘50s. As a sports writer with the Baltimore Evening Sun, I covered Loyola games when my friend Charley Wenzel was the coach. What a dismal period. The Hounds were 3-25 from 1957 to 1959. One day I practically pleaded Loyola’s athletic director, the late Emil G. (Lefty) Reitz, “Lef, you’ve got to get some lacrosse scholarships at this place if you’re going to keep playing Hopkins and Maryland.” “We’ve got ‘em,” Lefty said. “We just can’t get anybody to take ‘em.” Things improved when
It’s a new day at Loyola University Maryland. New name. A handsome new $62 million, 6,000-seat stadium. And a winning team.
Lifelong Loyola Fan Greyhounds’ hot start brings back memories of leaner times in Evergreen
Dave Cottle became the Greyhounds’ coach in 1983 and remained there through 2001. He led Loyola to its proudest lacrosse moment ever — appearing in the NCAA championship game against Syracuse in 1990. Syracuse won 21-9. Cottle’s 1999 team may have been the best ever at Loyola. The Greyhounds won 12 straight games and were seeded No. 1 in the NCAA playoffs, but they lost to Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
So this spring there I was, watching admiringly as Loyola crushed Duke to go to 5-0. I was especially impressed that Loyola’s athletes were better than Duke’s, beating them to ground balls all day. Then victories over Air Force,
Jay Connor became coach in 1975. Connor was first-team All-American lacrosse and soccer player at Virginia. But at Loyola, he was only a part-time coach. It’s almost miraculous that he was able to produce 11-4 and 10-2 teams.
Georgetown and UMBC made the Greyhounds 8-0. The small Jesuit school that once was lucky to have one or two big-time lacrosse players now has a full compliment of them, including the incredible duo of All-American candidates Mike Sawyer and Eric Lusby, who combined for 53 goals in those first eight games. It’s a new day at Loyola University Maryland. New name. A handsome new $62 million, 6,000-seat stadium. And a winning team. It looks as if coach Charley Toomey — Loyola’s goalie in that 1990 NCAA championship game — has now developed an elite team at his alma mater.
Amazing what you can do with full-time coaches and scholarships. LM
—Bill Tanton
btanton@uslacrosse.org
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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