The Agony of Defeat - The 1973 NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championship Game

[DaveO]

"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" was the catch phrase of the long running TV show ABC Wide World of Sports, which officially ended in 1998 after a 30+ year run.

This story is about the Agony of Defeat.  I was reminded of it recently.  I was stunned at the impact when I first heard it, and when recently reminded of the tale I was again struck by the long term impact.

I attended The Johns Hopkins University.  Among other attributes its known for its lacrosse teams, that have been national champions and challengers for a national championship decade after decade reaching back into the first half of the 20th century.  During the period I was there in my 3rd and 4th years of college the team went to the National Championship game and lost in the finals.  During the following year they won the National Championship.  A good stretch.

I was friendly with some of the players.  This story involves a conversation I had with one of those players probably a dozen or so years after we had graduated.

In my Senior year the team was very good, going undefeated through the season up to its final regular season game.   The opponent was U of Maryland, the long time traditional rival and also undefeated.  Maryland was ranked #1, Hopkins #2.   As good as our team was they were crushing opponents all season, most of whom we both played.   We had some great players.  They had relatively speaking an entire team of great players including one that would probably be ranked among the handful of superstars over all time.    Most of the players from the best teams knew one another through high school and summer leagues.

The regular season match up was at College Park and drew a relatively huge crowd for a college lacrosse game.  It had appropriately received a lot of press with the two teams, both undefeated, featuring terrific stars, and ranked #1 and #2.

But woe was me....and the fans from my school.  U Maryland might have had its best game of the season, and crushed Hopkins by a score of something like 18-5, possibly its most dominant victory of the year.  The score might not have been representative of the U Maryland domination.   From my perspective it was crushing and pathetic.  Certainly the worst loss I ever saw Hopkins take, before and for a long after.

The 2 teams went into the National Tournament ranked #1 and #2 and worked their way into the final game.  Clearly Maryland was favored by a lot.  They probably had one of the most dominant seasons of any team in any year, pummeling virtually all opposition.

But in the final game Hopkins unveiled a surprise, to Maryland,  to Lacrosse at that time, and to all the fans at that game:  a slow down.  It worked.  Hopkins' most skilled players would hold the ball for endless minutes and pass among its most skilled players.  It totally stymied U Md's dynamic team over the course of the game.

At the end of regulation the score was tied, 9-9 I believe;  a complete shocker to all, but a great thrill to those of us cheering for Hopkins.   

Overtime was sudden death; first goal wins.   At a point in the play an attempt at a clear was fumbled at roughly mid field and it appeared as if virtually every non-goalie of both teams was bunched around that part of the field.  Suddenly one of the Hopkins Defense men raced through the entire scrum, cleanly picked up the ball and burst down the field unobstructed, unguarded, ahead of the pack and aiming at the goal.  A lacrosse field is roughly the same size as a football field so he had 40, 50 60 yards to the goal, but was far ahead of any other player and had only the goalie to beat.

That was the "old friend" I ran into at lunch in DC, possibly around a dozen years after we had graduated.  We weren't great friends but had mutual friends, had probably hung out together, partied together, were at the gym together.   He was in the class after mine and was a starting defense man on that subsequent team, being a starter on a National Championship team.  Good for him.

Anyway we ran into one another in DC at lunch one day possibly a dozen years after he or I had graduated.  An unexpected pleasure and get together.  We caught up about our own lives and referenced various people we both knew.  I had been in more contact with someone with whom he had been friendlier and I could give him some updates on this mutual friend and how to get in touch with him.

At the end of the lunch I asked him about that play, referenced above.   Here is what occurred.  

He burst past every other player and had a clear run to the goal.  He was pretty fast so nobody from the Maryland team could catch him.  As a defense man he carried a very long lacrosse stick; good for playing defense, poking at the other teams offensive players, good for disrupting passes and shots and picking up ground balls, but terrible for accurate shooting.   He probably had not taken a shot all  year or had done so extremely rarely.  Defense men don't shoot.

As he approached the opposition goal the Maryland goalie stepped out to try and cut angles.  My friend while still a distance away, but reasonably close reared up and fired a shot.  It was slightly high and slightly wide.  It got past the goalie but just missed scoring.  

The missed opportunity of a lifetime.

Maryland recovered the ball, got it down field, ultimately fed their super star of super stars. He angled by a clump of players, was somewhat obscured from view from the Hopkins (first team All American) goalie, shot and scored.   

Game over.  University of Maryland wins.  Utter joy on one side.  Utter despair on the other side.

Now my friend had been a critical and positive starting player on a National Championship game in the following year.  Bully for him.   

Regardless, I had to ask him about the shot at the game we lost.

He looked at me.  Despair in his eyes.  He said something like this:    "Dave, I think about that shot EVERY NIGHT".

Every freaking night.  Imagine that.  About 12 years after the event.  Count them up;  Over 4,000 nights.

That is the agony of defeat.

Anyway I recently heard a postscript.   That shot doesn't haunt his evenings any more, or so I heard.  Good for him!!!!!!!!! 

[DonRocks]

The year was 1973, and this superstar of superstars was Frank Urso, perhaps at that time, the greatest college midfielder ever to live. I never saw him play live, but remember him well from the Sports Pages and from TV - he was a University of Maryland legend.

[DaveO]

On 3/9/2015 at 3:26 AM, DonRocks said:

The year was 1973, and this superstar of superstars was Frank Urso, perhaps at that time, the greatest college midfielder ever to live. I never saw him play live, but remember him well from the Sports Pages and from TV - he was a University of Maryland legend.

Nice catch, Don.   You did your research.  Here is an archived article from Sports Illustrated describing the championship game and the season that preceded it.   Urso was indeed the premier player of that era and threatened to score every time he touched the ball.  He was head and shoulders better than anyone else on the field during those years.   In fact the regular season game was 17-4, not 18-5 as I had written above.  From my perspective, no difference, a humiliating loss any way one looked at it or if one favored U MD a terrific smashing victory.

My old friend, one of the Hopkins defense men, more or less suffered at least 4000 nights following that missed shot.  He would have been an incredible hero had he scored.   So glad he was part of a winning team the following year.   By the way, the team Hopkins beat in the finals the following year was Maryland.  Objectively I'd say Md, was better with overall more astonishing talent, but Hopkins was damned close and whupped their arse's the second time around.