Women's Game Pioneer Jackie Pitts Dies at 87

Jacquelin “Jackie” Pitts, a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and one of the most impactful figures in the history and development of women’s lacrosse, passed away on August 30 at her home in Delaware. She was 87 years of age.

Pitts’ lifetime of lacrosse experience spanned the entire spectrum of the sport: player, coach, educator, camp director, administrator and international pioneer for women’s lacrosse.

“Jackie was an enthusiastic and passionate advocate and promoter of not just women’s lacrosse, but lacrosse in general,” said Joe Finn, lacrosse historian and archivist for the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum. “She worked hard to help grow the game here in the United States as well as around the world.”

A 1959 graduate of St. Lawrence (N.Y.) University, Pitts played club lacrosse for the Philadelphia Bandits and the Philadelphia Women’s Lacrosse Association. Additionally, she was also a member of the U.S. Women’s Team and U.S. Reserve Team from 1964-74. During that span, Pitts played on three U.S. Touring Teams, traveling to Great Britain and Ireland in 1964, to Australia in 1969, and back to Great Britain in 1970.

Following the conclusion of her playing career, Pitts served as the head coach of the U.S. women’s squad from 1979-87, leading the Americans to the first World Cup championship in 1982. Her instrumental role in helping to establish the world championship event was one of the hallmarks of her career.

“In 1974, Maggie Boyd [the first president of the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations] and I had our first formal meeting, and it wasn’t very formal,” Pitts explained in a USA Lacrosse Magazine interview. “We were just sitting on a hill in England, kind of away from everyone, but we could still keep our eye on the game that day. She had contacted all the countries that were then playing and said, ‘What do you think? Could this World Cup thing work?’ We ended up deciding that we wanted to have a World Cup, or at least have an international lacrosse association for the promotion of lacrosse, and the first major project was to have the World Cup.”

Pitts served as both president and vice president of the United States Women’s Lacrosse Association (USWLA) and the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations, a predecessor of World Lacrosse.

Hall of Famer Michele LeFevre, a defender on the 1982 U.S. Team, has great appreciation for Pitts and the other women who helped advance the game.

“If it weren’t for the women like Jackie who came before us who had the ideas and the forethought to build international relationships and international lacrosse, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity,” she said. “Those women put this together and made it happen.”

In addition to her commitment to the game’s international growth, Pitts served for 55 years as a teacher, administrator and coach at her alma mater, Sanford Prep, in Delaware, helping hundreds of schoolgirls to learn the game. She also helped mentor a new generation of coaches.

“So many of us benefitted from her coaching at summer camps, during Sanford club weekends, and during the U.S. squad weekends,” said Hall of Fame coach Feffie Barnhill, whose relationship with Pitts dates back to 1968. “Jackie was a mentor, a friend, and the first world ambassador for women’s lacrosse. She should be recognized as the most influential developer of women’s lacrosse.”

Hall of Famer Janet Smith initially met Pitts as a teammate on the U.S. squads and built a close friendship that lasted almost six decades. “Through 58 years of friendship, I have known Jackie as a teammate, teacher, coach, adventurer, traveler and ambassador. She was one in a million, and I’m a better person for having known her,” Smith said.

Pitts was inducted to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1983 and the St. Lawrence University Hall of Fame in 1986 and is an honorary member of the USWLA (formerly IFWLA) and the Philadelphia Women’s Lacrosse Association. Internationally, she was largely responsible for the growth of women’s lacrosse in both Japan and Czechoslovakia.

In 1993, Pitts became one of the first women inducted to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and she was also the inaugural recipient of USA Lacrosse’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. USA Lacrosse’s prestigious high school girls’ award annually recognizing outstanding players has long borne her name.

“Jackie did so much for and was involved with so much in women’s lacrosse that it is hard to imagine what women’s lacrosse would be without Jackie Pitts,” Finn said. “She truly was a tireless ambassador for the game, and it’s certainly appropriate that USA Lacrosse gives the Jackie Pitts Award every year to high school seniors throughout the nation who go over and above to serve their team, school and community. That was Jackie Pitts.”