140 Years of Excellence HLX1881

1881

The Harvard Lacrosse program first competed in intercollegiate lacrosse in 1881. The season of 1880-81 started out with a meeting held October 4, when C. F. Squibb was elected as captain. In 1881, Harvard defeated Princeton to win the first ever intercollegiate lacrosse tournament.

Decades of Dominance

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Harvard was a men’s lacrosse powerhouse, winning 14 championships before 1916. Nets were fastened to the goalposts in 1897, and a year later, shorter, lighter sticks gave rise to a short passing game. In 1905, the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse League was founded with Northern and Southern Divisions, and the new league brought with it a number of innovations as well, including the implementation of 35-minute halves.

Despite all of these changes, Harvard continued to win. The Crimson earned the first USILL national title in 1905 and then garnered six straight titles from 1908-1913.

In a letter to The Crimson, Winthrop Nightingale '15 wrote, “The school has a supremacy in this branch of athletics... A majority of men in College today do not yet realize that the lacrosse team offers more to the individual than any other athletic team representing the University,” Read more on our Era of Dominance by clicking this link.

First Team All-America

In 1922, Daniel Treanor became our first 1st Team All-American selection. Since this exciting milestone, Harvard has been well represented on the All-American teams. We have had 8 1st Team selections, 15 2nd Team selections, 14 3rd Team selections, and 90 Honorable Mention selections.

Leading in a Time of War

In 1941, while America was grappling with the turmoil of the Second World War in Europe, Harvard Lacrosse players were leaders in the on-going domestic movement for racial equality. In the back row, 2nd to the right in the picture above stands Lucien Alexis Jr., a New Orleans native who aspired to be a doctor. He was the Crimson’s lone black player in 1941 and was the only black student in the entire junior class.

When our lacrosse team showed up to Annapolis 75 years ago as part of a spring break trip to compete against Navy, the midshipmen stated they would not play on the same field as a black man. Harvard refused to play without Alexis. Harvard was prepared to forfeit the game, but Alexis, who played against Maryland the day before, told the team he would ride a train home that night. “I get tears in my eyes when I think about it,” Harvard’s All-American goalie, George Hanford, told The Boston Globe.

The incident is one of many thought to have persuaded President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate, to sign Executive Order 8802 that prohibited racial discrimination in the defense industry and promoted that all play a role in the World War II effort. To learn more about Alexis and his story, click this link.

Rhodes Scholars

In 1960, Langley C. Keyes Jr. became our first Rhodes Scholar. Langley is now a Professor Emeritus at MIT, and is an expert on housing policy, community development, and social services with over 40 years in the field and 5 books and numerous articles published on these subjects.

In 1964, Bruce Thomas and Peter Wood were both recognized as Rhodes Scholars, given the opportunity to study at Oxford University. Peter is an American historian and author of Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion (1974). It has been described as one of the most influential books on the history of the American South of the past 50 years.

In 1971, Donald J. Gogel was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, marking our 4th recipient in program history. Donald is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC, a private equity investment firm that he joined in 1989. CD&R currently manages more than $21 billion in capital with a portfolio of 22 companies that together have $85 billion in revenues and 200,000 employees around the world. Donald also acts as the Vice Chairman on the Board of Trustees for the Cancer Research Institute.