You might need some history in the game but you would not need to be a highly-educated lacrosse fan to recognize that Cornell was the “Team of the Decade” in the 1970’s.  From a National Championship in the first NCAA-sanctioned tournament in 1971 to the end of a streak of three consecutive undefeated seasons in the Finals in 1978.  It was an impressive run.

The Big Red were even more dominant in the Ivy League, capturing Ivy crowns in 15 of the 16 years between 1968 and 1983.  They were undefeated in league play in the three years prior to arriving in Providence for a game against Brown in 1973.  Bruce Arena was the captain and star of a heavy favorite who anticipated keeping that streak alive.  

Brown was led by its Massapequa, N.Y. senior captain, attackman Stephan Russo.  “Steph” was a different soul, especially so from the perspective of a stereotypical lacrosse jock.  He barely wanted you to know he was an athlete, certainly did not want to be judged by those standards.  He was a competitor, though, and an aggressive streak belied his off-the-field personality.  

Steph was struggling some in the early stages of that ’73 season.  Recovering from a knee injury contributed to a spotty performance in a pre-season exhibition at Hofstra against the Long Island Lacrosse Club.  In the locker room afterwards, one of the Long Island players offered Steph a wood stick which was already out of favor with college players.  I believe it was the only wood stick I saw the entire year. 

Steph took that gift and turned it in to magic.  He finished the season as the leading scorer in the country with 23 goals and 40 assists.  It was his four goals and three and two from teammates Bob Rubeor and Dave White that led to a convincing 11-3 victory over Cornell that day.  But that’s not the story.

Brown now had a shot at its first outright Ivy title with a road game at Penn the most significant obstacle.  In the meantime, Steph was following through with his career plans and was offered two possible dates for a mandatory Peace Corps orientation.  His options were the week before the game with Penn or the weekend that would include the game at Dartmouth. 

At the same time, it was a realistic goal that he finish the season as Brown’s all-time leading scorer.  His teammates assumed he would simply make that decision until he came to the team with the generous offer that “I will do whatever you think is best.” 

The team ultimately decided that it could beat Dartmouth without him and that we truly needed him to be properly prepared for the game at Penn.  We went on to beat the Quakers in a close game 9-7, won at Dartmouth 15-6 and finished the season as undefeated Ivy League Champions.

In turn, Steph finished the season No.2 on Brown’s all-time list, only two points behind 1970 grad “Bullet” Bob Anthony.  He spent his two Peace Corps years working with underserved children in Bogota, Colombia and returned to New York City to begin a career at the Goddard Riverside Community Center.  He spent 39 years at Goddard, including the last 19 as its executive director.  He retired just this past Feb. 10. 

My favorite sports book is Dean Smith’s autobiography “A Coach’s Life.”  In the introduction he states that “there is great value in examining the athletic heart at the championship level.”  I have considered his insightful words often over the course of a long career.  In this instance, the guy who least wanted to be thought of as a jock, provided one of the most profound examples of an athlete’s heart at the championship level….of life.

Dom Starsia, a National Lacrosse Hall of Famer and US Lacrosse Magazine contributor, is the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse history. Starsia compiled 375 wins in 34 seasons at Brown and Virginia, leading the Cavaliers to four NCAA championships. He was a two-time All-American defenseman at Brown and played for the U.S. national team in 1978.