OF LACROSSE
INSTANT IMPACT
How new headquarters breathed new
life into the US Lacrosse mission BY MATT DASILVA
Courtenay Servary did not stand out in the crowd. About 1,200 lacrosse fans flocked to US Lacrosse for the grand opening of its new headquarters in Sparks, Md., an event that included a tripleheader of games and the public debut of the state-of-the- art National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum.
Servary, a school administrator from Ickesburg, Pa., admired the orange No. 13 jersey hanging inside a reclaimed locker. Beneath the jersey, a ball signed by every member of the 1975 Morgan State men’s lacrosse team resides in a glass case with an inscription.
Morgan State 8
Washington and Lee 7 Game Ball Presented by Coach Silverman to P. Courtenay Servary March, 1975
The memories came flooding back.
Memories of growing up in orphanages and foster care. Of being adopted by a Baltimore family at 6 years old, only to watch his adoptive father leave three years later. Of coming home one day from Northern High School, just inside city limits, to find that his adoptive mother had fled as well.
“Came home. House was locked up. She had put a box of clothes out on the sidewalk. I didn’t know where she went,” Servary said. “Gone.” Servary, who was 16 at the time, emptied
the box and set it up in the stairwell of his former home. He slept there for the next two nights. When he told a school counselor what happened, she gave him $3. He lived on 60-cent hamburgers for three days. A woman down the street took him in and let him stay in her basement while he finished high school. Then came the good memories.
Memories of
graduating high school and meeting Chip Silverman, the late Morgan State coach who offered him the opportunity not only to continue playing lacrosse — Servary was an outstanding goalie despite being just 5-foot-4 — but also to get out of the basement. Of getting a chance to transfer to Towson two years later, but turning it down, because, well, he had found his family. And of course,
Servary remembered being a part of one of the greatest upsets in lacrosse history, when the 1975 Morgan State team of “Ten Bears” fame defeated No. 1-ranked Washington and Lee. Servary, an All-
American that season, was one of just three white players on the team. There were wayward looks from the mostly black students on campus and occasionally uncomfortable
encounters in fast-food restaurants during road trips to racially tense places like Roanoke, Va. But the Bears stuck together. Silverman would be the best man at Servary’s wedding. “That team cared about me more than anyone else did at the time,” Servary said. “Especially being a
42 US LACROSSE MAGAZINE December 2016
USlacrosse.org
goalie, especially only being 5-foot-4, everyone around me, they were very protective.” Donnie Brown, another member of the Ten Bears who has become integral to the growth of the sport in Baltimore’s black communities, interrupted Servary. “You’re part of our
family,” Brown said. Five weeks later,
Servary and Brown returned to US
Lacrosse, this time for a Morgan State gathering — a family reunion, if you will — hosted in conjunction with the Denver-Princeton fall ball game honoring coach Bill Tierney. Nearly 50 former players and family members attended the function, one of several events US Lacrosse has been able to stage thanks to the amenities of the IWLCA Building and Tierney Field. “This is a great example of how the new US Lacrosse headquarters is allowing us to engage people in new ways,
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