Quote from: Ralph Turner on April 30, 2026, 01:10:25 PMMy good friend did Medical School and Residency at Hopkins. He and his wife went out to a JHU lacrosse match against Syracuse ... and saw Jim Brown playing. Yeah, #32 for the Cleveland Browns.

Jim Brown was a two-sport All-American for the Orange: football and lacrosse. Not only was he a two-time All-American in lacrosse, they actually changed the rules of the game because of his dominance in the sport; when I was growing up in the suburbs of Syracuse, the rules said that you had to keep your stick in continuous motion if you had the ball. Everybody called it "the Jim Brown rule," because he had dominated the sport so much by just tucking the ball in the net of his stick and holding it stationary close to his body. (The rule is no longer in effect.) He's in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the MVP award of America's professional lacrosse league is called the Jim Brown Trophy.

Jim Brown also played two seasons of basketball for Syracuse, averaging well into double-digit scoring both seasons. His teammates said that they could've won a national championship if Brown had stayed with the team -- but the program had an unwritten rule that at least three of the five starters had to be white, and the team's other two stars were black, and they only played basketball. Brown had to put up with a lot of racial nonsense like that at SU; they didn't even give him a football scholarship until his junior year, despite the fact that he was the best player the Orange had from the moment he set foot on campus, and he was not allowed to live in the football dorm.

The coach of the Syracuse boxing team watched Brown spar and said that if he wanted to dedicate himself to the sweet science Brown could definitely contend to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Even though he never played baseball at SU, either, the Yankees were interested enough in him to give him a tryout, and Casey Stengel wanted to sign him. Brown wisely deferred where Michael Jordan succumbed, however, and turned Stengel down, recognizing that baseball success demanded certain specific skills that had to be developed over a long period of time and that the probability of success for an entry-level player was lower in that sport than in others.

Because of lacrosse season he couldn't practice with the Syracuse track team, but if there was a window in his schedule he'd put on his tracksuit and compete in meets for the Orange. One day in May of 1957 he suited up for the Syracuse track team, won the high jump and javelin, placed second in the discus, and helped Syracuse beat Colgate in a dual meet. Then he went over to the lacrosse field, put on his lacrosse uniform, and led the way to an 8-6 win over Army that secured an undefeated season for Syracuse. Despite the fact that he hardly trained at all for it -- how could he find the time to do so? -- he finished fifth in the decathlon at the National AAU meet in 1954.

Oh, and Brown was not only the best running back in college football when he was at Syracuse, he was also the kicker for the Orange.

Jim Brown was a freakishly gifted athlete. You can easily put him up against Jim Thorpe, Dave Winfield, and Bo Jackson in a conversation about the most talented all-around athlete that America has ever produced.

Dingo Talk Podcast last two interviews are with Dubuque and Simpson Head Coaches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nkw4aaOyms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKv8t8RaoO4

From the UD video.  Dubuque has a 1 year contract with McMurry coming to UD this year.  Then will have a 2 game series with St. Norbert.  St. Norbert makes sense, with proximity and 3 of their coaches have been at UD.

Simpson also has a 1 year contract with their Texas opponent Howard Payne.

https://x.com/CoachBurke10/status/2049891476180471962?s=20

we're doing it, Mount Union culture is back

Post #4008 Gregory Sager!

+1, 30 times.  Excellent assessment that tells the truth!

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on April 30, 2026, 12:11:22 PMThe Northeast - Virginia to Maine - is still, by far, the hotbed of HS lacrosse.  If your school lacks the prominence or geography to draw a fair number of students from this part of the country, it's going to be much tougher to field a competitive squad.

The popularity of lacrosse is increasing in the west and midwest, but not really yet at a level where it can feed a lot of college programs.

My good friend did Medical School and Residency at Hopkins. He and his wife went out to a JHU lacrosse match against Syracuse ... and saw Jim Brown playing. Yeah, #32 for the Cleveland Browns.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on April 30, 2026, 12:11:22 PMThe Northeast - Virginia to Maine - is still, by far, the hotbed of HS lacrosse.  If your school lacks the prominence or geography to draw a fair number of students from this part of the country, it's going to be much tougher to field a competitive squad.

Nationally competitive ... yes, well, you can't overcome generations of sport history overnight. Prior to Y2K the northeastern corridor was practically the only place in America where anybody owned a lacrosse stick. That's changed, but it will take awhile before schools from other parts of the country break through in the national tournament. It's the same as soccer, which has also been a sport predominantly played by northeastern high schools, and thus dominated at the D3 level by northeastern members, until recent decades (although soccer started to break out in the midwest a generation before lacrosse). Soccer still has a pronounced northeastern flavor on the D3 level, although more and more midwestern teams have broken through in the D3 tourney over the past 10-15 years.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on April 30, 2026, 12:11:22 PMThe popularity of lacrosse is increasing in the west and midwest, but not really yet at a level where it can feed a lot of college programs.

It depends upon what you mean by "a lot." And it also depends upon the state. Illinois has reached a sufficient saturation level in terms of high school lacrosse that it can supply a pretty fair amount of competent D3 lacrosse players. Just looking at the CCIW's men's lacrosse teams, Augustana's roster consists of 81% Illinois residents (albeit, Augie has a small roster and the team is not very good). Carroll's men's lacrosse is a little over half Illinoisian, which is impressive given the Wisconsin-heavy orientation of most CU sports (see above for my commentary about the very modest success of lacrosse's spread within Wisconsin high schools). Illinois Wesleyan is 40% Illinoisian and North Central is 43% Illinoisian. Carthage and Elmhurst have comparatively low percentages of Illinois residents.

But the important thing to note is where they're getting their out-of-state players. Virtually none of them are from the northeastern corridor. They tend to hail from Ohio, Minnesota, Michiana, and the suburbs of western cities such as Phoenix, Denver, Portland, and Seattle.

Franklin & Marshall

After losing the first four games last season (home to Stockton, away to three ranked opponents - Rowan, Denison, and Kenyon) and losing to Lynchburg at a neutral site along the way to a historically bad season (3-11-3 and 1-6-2 in conference), F&M's schedule has a bit different look this year.  Whether that is because they crafted it to give them a better chance of success or because it is harder to schedule highly ranked opponents coming off a losing season is not clear.  They still play W&L, which is usually tough and is playing @ Johns Hopkins on the same weekend, but otherwise Rutgers-Newark and Juniata come on to the schedule with W&L and F&M plays two fewer games overall.  Not easy opponents, but not quite the same challenge or travel distance they took on in 2025.

He has not, but he'll be running his Pine Tree Camp out of the Hyde School in Bath this year.

Anyone know if Coach Strahorn has landed a coaching job?

The Northeast - Virginia to Maine - is still, by far, the hotbed of HS lacrosse.  If your school lacks the prominence or geography to draw a fair number of students from this part of the country, it's going to be much tougher to field a competitive squad.

The popularity of lacrosse is increasing in the west and midwest, but not really yet at a level where it can feed a lot of college programs.