1940: Lacrosse

The ancient Indian game of Lacrosse, the oldest athletic game of purely American origin and the first game in which Intercollegiate contests were played in the United States celebrated in 1940 its one hundredth anniversary as a white man's game. The season was very appropriately marked by the most brilliant play which the game has yet seen in this country and by the largest number of organized college and school teams to be seen in action.

In no season have so many strong teams been fielded by the Intercollegiate group nor in any recent season have so many close games been seen between the leading Lacrosse tens. The shortening of the field to 80 yards (the outstanding change in the rules for 1940), produced, as its proponents had so long foretold, a definite tendency to equalize scoring, by bringing an increased speed and rapidity of change from defense to attack (such as prevails in modern Basketball). This caused Lacrosse more than ever to live up to its popular slogan of being the 'fastest game on two feet.'

The outstanding teams of the year were Maryland and Johns Hopkins in the South and Princeton, Hobart and Army in the North. Maryland, the 1939 champion among the colleges, was in 1940 undefeated in college competition but lost to the Club champion, Mt. Washington of Baltimore. Maryland shaded Hopkins by a single goal in a game which gave Hopkins its only defeat and marked Hopkins first bid for championship honors since her National championship teams from 1932 to 1934. Maryland as in 1939 was awarded the Wingate trophy as the champion college team of the year. Hobart, the Northern leader, was as in 1938 the only undefeated team of the year, winning its feature games with Syracuse, Cornell and Colgate by decisive scores but meeting none of the Southern leaders. Judging, however, by the comparative scores of Cornell against both Hopkins and Hobart in games played only a week apart, Hobart was fully on a par with Hopkins and Maryland.

Princeton had the stand-out team in the Central region and although defeated by the Southern leaders Maryland and Hopkins, she won victories over her regional rivals Rutgers and Army. Princeton also defeated her traditional rival, Yale, while Yale in turn fell before Harvard so that there was no definite champion among the Big Three.

Army had one of her best teams, losing only to Hopkins and Princeton and handing a decisive defeat to Navy in the annual service classic. Dartmouth again carried off the championship of the New England Lacrosse league and Swarthmore had her second big season in the southern and central regions, being for the second season undefeated among teams of her class.

The 1940 season reached its climax on June 14 when a Lacrosse plan of many years was realized and for the first time in its more than fifty years of existence the Intercollegiate Lacrosse organization sponsored a game between an All-North and an All-South team. The southern team was selected and coached by a committee headed by W. H. Moore, the Navy coach, the other members being Jack Faber, coach of Maryland, and Avery Blake, the Swarthmore coach. The Northern committee was headed by Dr. Laurie D. Cox who has coached so many All-American teams in past International series, the other members of the committee being William Logan, the Princeton coach, F. M. Touchtone, coach of Army, and R. D. Root, coach of Yale.

The details of the game were arranged by the Secretary of the Lacrosse Association John H. Paige of Colgate, himself the center on the All-American team which played in Canada in the 1930 series. The game was played in Baltimore in the municipal stadium, where under flood lights and in a most brilliant exhibition of high class Lacrosse, the Northern team, to the great surprise of all followers of Lacrosse, defeated the All-South team, 6-5. This result was especially surprising since a starting line-up was available for the Southern forces composed entirely of players selected from the champion Maryland team and the runner-up Hopkins team. These two teams produced the bulk of the Southern strength, while the Northern team was composed of players from a considerable number of teams.

Of the thirty players selected for the All-America team nearly all were seen in action in this North-South game since each team was composed of a squad of 20 players. The All-South squad contained players from the following colleges: Maryland, Hopkins, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Loyola, Lehigh, University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, and Duke. The squad of the winning All-North team was composed of players from Hobart, Princeton, Army, Rutgers, Yale, Penn State, Dartmouth, Cornell, Union, Syracuse, and Williams.