The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame will enshrine nine new inductees — Kevin Cassese, Leigh Buck Friedman, A.J. Haugen, Alex Kahoe, Phyllis Kilgour, David Morrow, Ryan Powell, Denise Wescott and Tami Worley Kirby — in a ceremony Sept. 29 at The Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley, Md.
Leigh Buck Friedman was a scorer.
That’s not to say she wasn’t a team player, but her greatest talent on the field was her ability to put the ball in the back of the net. And as a member of the 1975 U.S. women’s touring team, which finished 13-0 during a nearly six-week exhibition tour of England and Great Britain, she did it as well as anybody in the world.
“The tremendous scoring power of Leigh Buck….has proven unstoppable so far,” The Telegraph reported in one game account.
“They have a sensational goal scorer in 20-year-old Leigh Buck,” the London Daily Express echoed.
Buck finished as the team’s leading scorer during the tour, amassing 45 goals in 11 games. She missed two contests due to injury.
“Everyone who saw her play could not help but notice the dexterity, efficiency and grace of this left-handed player,” said Kathy Heinze, coach of the 1975 touring team and a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. “Leigh had elusive speed and deceptive quickness.”
None of Buck’s exploits came as a surprise to Heinze, who had previously coached her as a member of the National Tournament’s South squad. Despite being one of the younger members of the 1975 U.S. team, Buck had the skills to make an impact.
“Precise and controlled footwork, great lateral vision, and accurate passing enabled her to assist her teammates in every way,” Heinze said. “However, it was her variety of shots and control of those shots that made her a most effective scorer.”
Friedman’s rapid ascension to the ranks of the world’s elite was nearly as impressive as her scoring prowess. Just seven years removed from her freshman season at Friends School in Baltimore, she had become one of the most prolific scorers on the highest international stage of the time. The inaugural women’s World Cup was still another seven years away, in 1982.
“Lacrosse was our family sport,” said Friedman, who had three older brothers who played. Her father played at Johns Hopkins, and her grandfather, Phillip Lamb, a standout player at Swarthmore and later, with the famed Mt. Washington Club, was inducted to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965. “Everyone was always playing in the backyard.”
After finishing at Friends, Friedman began her college career as a two-sport athlete in lacrosse and field hockey at Ithaca. She transferred to Towson for her junior and senior seasons.
“It was a great experience playing both sports,” Friedman said. “Many of us played field hockey and lacrosse.”
Friedman’s exploits as a club player and her prominence on the National Tournament all-star team helped lead to her selection to the 1975 U.S. touring team. She says that the chemistry among the players was one of the keys to the team’s success. Both Friedman and the 1975 U.S. touring team will be recognized this weekend, Friedman as an inductee into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the touring team as a Team of Distinction honoree. (The 1965 Navy men’s team also will be honored in the latter category.)
“We had an amazing group of women who were just dedicated and focused,” Friedman said. “We all just jelled amazingly well. We were a unified group. I think what made our group special was that we all knew our place on the team, and everybody did all that they could to fill their role.”
Friedman gives much of the credit for the success she had in her role – scoring goals – to her teammates.
“It was a great honor to finish as the leading scorer, but of course, your teammates have to feed you the ball,” she said. “It was a whole team effort.”
A 15-0 opening win over the England Reserves Team, in which Friedman tallied four goals, set the tone for both the U.S. squad and herself. Friedman scored three goals or more in nine of the 11 games she played.
“It was a joy to witness lacrosse as played by Leigh,” Heinze said.