[
HIS SPACE ] editorial
Two of a Kind W
Remembering Lloyd Bunting and Myrt Gaines, humble men whose lives touched more than just lacrosse
ithin nine days this summer, two great National
Lacrosse Hall of Famers, Lloyd Bunting and Myrt Gaines, died. They were two of the best men I’ve known. Actually, they started to be my heroes when I was barely in my early teens, when I began to throw a lacrosse ball against our garage door and then would race to Johns Hopkins on spring Saturdays to marvel at the skills of the top college players in the country. Bunting was a big-
shouldered, rock’em-sock’em defenseman at Hopkins. He was a first-team All- American on Blue Jay teams that won four straight national championships from 1947 to 1950. The late Bob Sandell, another Hall of Famer from those teams that never lost a college game, once told me Bunting was their only truly great athlete. Here’s the kind of guy Bunting was:
In 1948, Esther Williams came to Baltimore for the premier of her new movie. MGM’s public relations people called Johns Hopkins and asked who was the best athlete in the school. That’s Lloyd Bunting, they were told. MGM wanted Bunting to be Miss Williams’s escort for the premier festivities. When Lloyd was informed of this, he said, “What? The night before a game? I never
A Publication of US Lacrosse
go out the night before a game.”
And so this handsome young bachelor declined an invitation to spend an evening with one of the most glamorous stars in Hollywood. The game the next day was more important.
In many ways, Bunting never changed. Oh, he adored his wife Claire, sister of one of Bunting’s teammates on the Johns Hopkins defense, Tommy Gough. For the rest of their lives, Lloyd and Tommy were brothers-in-law and best friends.
Bunting, 87, always put responsibility first — responsibility to the team, to Claire, to the family, to business. If that sounds dull, I’m sorry. Lloyd was funny and he was fun. He actually was a very kind man. Over the last 15 years or so, I got to know Bunting better than ever. At his home on Timonium Road north of Baltimore, he proudly showed me his watercolors. This hulk of a man, this one-time punisher of attackmen, was a painter, of all things. His paintings looked lovely to me.
Bunting might be the best athlete Johns Hopkins has ever produced. In addition to his lacrosse heroics, he was a Little All-American football player on a team that was invited to the 1948 Tangerine Bowl, which, like the date with
Esther Williams, had to be declined. Bowl games were not in keeping with Hopkins’ philosophy. Myrt Gaines I admired as a smooth and smart attackman on the always- formidable Princeton teams of the time. (You didn’t think Princeton lacrosse only got good when Bill Tierney got there, did you?)
Gaines, whose son, David, captained one of Tierney’s NCAA championship teams at Princeton, remained heroic in my eyes long after his lacrosse-playing days. He had a much-honored career as a medical doctor. When he retired from practice, he became a key volunteer in the founding and development of the Gilchrist Hospice Care Center for the terminally ill at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He died there of a heart
MGM wanted Bunting to escort Esther Williams for the premier. He said, “What? The night before a game? I never go out the night before a game.”
September 2013 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 23
attack June 26. He was 86. As outstanding as Lloyd and Myrt were, I never heard either one utter a boastful word. Throughout their long lives, they added immeasurably to everything they touched. LM
— Bill Tanton
btanton@uslacrosse.org
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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