A recent tour through our wonderful new Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum had me thinking about the great players I’ve watched and known since the mid-1940s. You may disagree with these personal opinions. Feel free.

Attack

I never saw a player who could get to the ball so quickly and put it in the back of the goal as Navy’s Jimmy Lewis in the early ’60s. He was the offensive engine of a Navy team that won the national championship every year.

Smartest player I’ve known? Billy Hooper, of Virginia in the late ’40s and through the ’50s with the great Mt. Washington Club teams. If ever a team had a player who was a coach on the field, it was Hooper.

Midfield

Gary Gait in his Syracuse days was the best lacrosse player I’ve ever seen. He could do things with the stick, offensively and defensively, that no one else could do. Twin brother Paul was not far behind – if behind at all. I once asked Dave Pietramala, who had played Gary in a championship game that day, who’s better – Gary or Paul? Toss a coin, he said. Don Zimmerman said because there were two Gaits, it made both of them even better.

Defense

Pietramala of Johns Hopkins. Great athlete. Great stick handler. Above all, though, a tireless warrior of a competitor. Which is just the way he is today as Hopkins’ coach.

I saw Lloyd Bunting at Hopkins on the famed ’50 team and thought he was the best ever – until Pietramala came along. The myth at Homewood was that Bunting’s man never scored a goal in Lloyd’s four championship seasons. I told that to Quint Kessenich and he said, “Then Bunting never slid.”

Goalie

Have seen too many of them have incredible days to pick just one. But best performance by a goalie?  Easy. Maryland’s Brian Dougherty is in a class by himself. Against No. 1 seed Hopkins in the NCAA semifinals at College Park in 1995, Doc just refused to let the ball go in. Hopkins had a lot of great shots that Doc turned away. Maryland eliminated the Blue Jays that day.

Best Athlete

Syracuse’s Jim Brown, of course. I saw him dominate the 1957 North-South game with five goals playing only a half. But Big Jim was first and foremost a football player in college and in the NFL. And he was maybe the best athlete in that sport. Lacrosse was his second sport.

Best Team Ever

Everybody thinks a team from his era was the best, but I’ve never been so awed by a team as coach Roy Simmons’ Syracuse Orange in 1990. No wonder! Both Gaits on the midfield. Their fellow British Columbian Tom Marachek on attack. Matt Palumb in the goal. Major talent up and down the lineup.

Syracuse had little trouble beating Loyola in the NCAA championship game. Soon afterward, because of a technical violation of the NCAA rules, the NCAA stripped Syracuse of the title. For the record, the NCAA says the 1990 championship was “vacated”, that there is no 1990 champion. What a heartbreaking conclusion for the best team I’ve ever seen.