This Web Page is a collection of assorted material from my years at Notre Dame. I was connected to the Lacrosse team for four years, 1966 through 1969, playing in every game during the first two years. For the last two, I played only sporatically due to injury, studies and impending marriage. As a result, the material presented here is skewed accordingly.
Lacrosse at Notre Dame during these years was a unique experience-- I imagine quite different from the varsity version that exists today. Starting with the equipment, especially the wooden sticks (made by Indians?), mis-matched helmets and gloves (several of my teammates used hockey gloves), to the off-the-field experience. Since we had no varsity status, we had very little assistance from the university (use of fields, a storage room upstairs in the old Fieldhouse, old football jerseys up until 1966 and recycled football shoes-- I used Vito Racanelli's size 10 1/2's). The rest we did on our own: buying sticks, running practices, getting referees for games, getting to games and footing the travel expenses. These latter two areas caused us to have various fund raisers. We sold football programs before the games in the Fall. We ran movies in the Engineering Auditorium (remember "Zotz"?). And mostly we dug into our own (or parents') pockets for the funds to go to Colorado or to East Lansing. To get to the away games, we usually divided up into the cars of our upper classmen. My first choice was Cliff Lennon's Austin Healy, often with two others jammed in. Occasionally we took commercial transportation with mixed results. The train trip to Colorado went flawlessly. Our bus to Ohio broke down (see photo in the 1966 section) forcing us to hitch-hike the rest of the way to Kenyon College. We usually had "free" accommodations; they ranged from the gym floor (on mats) at Colorado College to the Visitor Officer's Quarters at the Air Force Academy. Most often they were dorms or fraternity houses, in which we often shared rooms or floor-space with our teammates. I remember only twice that we paid for accommodations- the Hotel Boulderado in Boulder, Colorado and the Holiday Inn in Newark, Ohio. Our President (while also playing full time) orchestrated all of this off-the-field life, and a hundred other hassels that were unknown to the rest of us.
On the field, our Captain played the role of coach, assistant coach and full-time player (an astounding accomplishment). What success we achieved on the field can be attributed to these people - Bill Joseph, Matt Dwyer- and to leaders without titles like Duncan MacIntosh and Cliff Lennon- who knew how the game was supposed to be played.
As a Club Sport, we stayed in touch throughout the year. We had a basketball entry in the campus Club League. Cliff Lennon, Mike Desmond, Larry Duke, Craig O'Connor, Pete Sillari and I put together several winning seasons on the hardwood. And perhaps most memorable of all were the nicknames (do they still do that today?) - The Stork, The Tuna, The Rabbit, Mouse, Camel, Rookie, The Boomer, Slug, Ots, and of course, Chief Squatty-Body.