1939: Lacrosse

Lacrosse, the oldest intercollegiate game in America, achieved greater popularity in 1939 than ever before, as more and more colleges and secondary schools added the sport to their athletic programs. Interest in the sport has grown rapidly in the past few years, and there is spirited competition among players for election to the All-America squad chosen each year by the All-America Board of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.

The Wingate Trophy, awarded annually to the outstanding team in the nation, was won this year by the high-scoring University of Maryland eleven. Dartmouth carried off the New England Lacrosse Conference Championship for the second successive year, while in the newly-formed Dixie League, which now lists Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington and Lee as members, Duke came out on top. The Mount Washington Club of Baltimore won the National Club championship in a title series with the Baltimore Athletic Club.

Lacrosse is the only intercollegiate game in which a definite and recognized national champion is determined and the sport is characterized by its strict adherence to the traditions of true amateurism. The Wingate Trophy, awarded by the Executive Committee on the general quality of the season's play, is a memorial to the late Wilson Wingate, former Baltimore sports writer and ardent supporter of lacrosse.

Maryland, playing one of the stiffest schedules of the year, had easily the best season's record, with only one defeat. Maryland's lone setback came at the hands of Johns Hopkins, its traditional rival, in the biggest lacrosse upset of the year. In one of the year's key matches Maryland defeated Navy (the national winners in 1938) by the score of 5-3.

With a clear claim to the Southern title Maryland clinched her national bid with a victory over Princeton. Princeton claimed honors in the North by virtue of wins over Army and Rutgers, her closest rivals, and also won the Big Three title.

The popularity of lacrosse has not been limited entirely to large colleges. Excellent teams, capable of holding their own with the country's best were produced by such relatively small institutions as Swarthmore, Hobart and St. John's of Annapolis. There has been considerable evidence of interest in lacrosse in the southwest and several colleges in that section of the country are expected to organize teams during the coming year. Texas Christian, in particular, has been a leader in this awakening of interest in the game.

The supremacy which the Southern teams have maintained since the introduction of the game into colleges, more than 100 years ago, is gradually becoming less marked. Of the twelve ranking teams of the year seven are from the North and five from the South, with Southern teams, however, standing in first and second place.