1st NCAA Lacrosse Championship - Maryland vs. Cornell @ Hofstra Stadium June 5, 1971

The 1st NCAA Lacrosse Championship was also my first lacrosse game.  Traffic from my home in Queens to Hofstra was heavy.  Cononero II was running in the Belmont Stakes that afternoon for the Triple Crown.  Over 100,000 was expected at Belmont Park in nearby Elmont, NY.

Hofstra had the first "AstroTurf" on a college campus. The AFL's NY Jets had their training camp there.  Only Houston's Astrodome, home of the MLB Astros, had "artificial" turf (i.e. AstroTurf) in pro sports.  Americans were still going to the moon in those days.

Maryland and Cornell's school colors are both Red & White.  Maryland's players were 50/50 - NY/MD and Cornell almost all NYers, but Cornell's star was Canadien Al Rimmer who the Terps could not stop all day.

The Terps were playing catch up all day, but never did catch the "Big Red."  Cornell won 12-6.  Per the scoring I kept, Al Rimmer had 6 goals.  I wanted him deported.

The attendance was reported in the paper at 5,500 or so.  I would have guessed two or three thousand tops.

It was the last time I bought a program for 25 cents.

Maryland 1972 NIT Champions @ Madison Square Garden NYC March 25, 1972

In 1972, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) meant something.  Only Conference Champions won a spot in the NCAA Tournament (pre-March Madness).  Conference Runner-up teams, Independents (50% of colleges) and local schools came to NYC and gladly accepted an invitation to the NIT.

The 1970-71 Maryland Terps had "experienced" Madison Square Garden (MSG).  The Terps played and beat Seton Hall on Feb 20, 1971. Freshman could not play Varsity sports then.  I met Freshmen Tom McMillen and Len Elmore sitting court side and had them autograph my Maryland press guide. Lefty came over and passed the guide around and had all the players autograph the inside cover.

The Terps invitation to the 1972 NIT was an important accomplishment in Lefty's plan to make Maryland "the UCLA of the East."

The "President" Arrives

"Pep Bands" were not common in MSG.  Eddie Layton played the organ there for 50 years and that was all I knew about music.

The Maryland Pep Band set up early for the first game against St. Joseph's. When Coach Lefty Driesell came out for pre-game warmups, as usual they played "Hail to the Chief."  The uproar that President Nixon was entering took 5 minutes to calm down.

The Terps played well enough to beat St. Joe's that day, then Syracuse and Jacksonville.  Terps drew some boos during the "slow downs" that made North Carolina "four corners" famous - which resulted in the shot clock in college basketball.   Now on to the NIT Championship against Niagara. 

NIT Championship Game - March 25, 1972

The Championship game against the Purple Eagles of Niagara University (Buffalo NY) was on a Saturday afternoon.  The NHL NY Rangers had a home game that night, so the court was placed on top of the ice.  I sat in a floor seat right behind Lefty.  The mats or cloth laid on top of the ice did not keep my feet from being ice cold.

Maryland won its First Championship that day.  Niagara made a good accounting of itself, but the Terps had size and controlled the boards.

After the game I went towards the locker room entrance with my friend Howard (Lefty's business partner).  When a security guard stopped me, Asst Coach George Raveling came over and said to him "that's Lefty's son."  I ran into the locker room. 

The locker room celebration was the realization that Maryland basketball was on the right track.  It took another 30 years for Maryland to complete that journey and Win the NCAA National Championship.  I'm glad I was there for the entire trip.