Wednesday May 19th, 2021 9:30am
(Photos Courtesy Cornell Athletics)
The first NCAA Men s Lacrosse Championship was 50 years ago, in 1971. Christian Swezey is the author of a forthcoming book on Cornell lacrosse in the 1970s, tentatively titled: We Showed Baltimore: Richie Moran’s Big Red and the Lacrosse Revolution of the 1970s
CORNELL ENTERED THE 1971 season with a mishmash of a starting lineup. A pair of starting attackmen senior attackman Al Rimmer, the leading scorer in the Ivy League the previous year, and junior Frank Davis had not played high school lacrosse, though both exceled in box lacrosse. Senior defenseman John Burnap, recruited to Cornell as a tight end for the football team, had not played lacrosse at all before arriving in Ithaca. He found his way to the tryout for the freshman lacrosse team in the spring of 1968 at the behest of his older brother, who urged him to avoid the drudgery of spring football practice at all cost.