The Golden Era of Lehigh Lacrosse

The 1920s were the “Golden era” of Lehigh Lacrosse. Leading up to this decade, Lehigh rapidly became a nationally recognized lacrosse team, winning championship titles in 1890, 1893, 1896, 1897, 1914, 1916, and 1917, and two more in 1920 and 1921. During the 1920s, the spirit of Lehigh Lacrosse was embodied in the personality of its head coach, Bill O’Neil, a fiery Canadian mentor from Cornwall, Canada. At this time, intercollegiate lacrosse was dominated by colleges that were members of either the Northern or Southern Leagues; the Northern League consisted of Cornell, Harvard, Hobart, Syracuse, and Yale, while the Southern League consisted of Johns Hopkins, Stevens, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Lehigh.

In the 1920 season, lacrosse was one of the most important sports at Lehigh and it was during this year that the team stood against its fiercest competition. Of the seven games played during the season, Lehigh lost only the opener against Navy. Teams such as Syracuse and Johns Hopkins fell to the team’s athletic prowess. Much of the credit for the season was due to Coach O’Neil, who recruited the lacrosse veterans that lead the team to victory.

The 1921 season was one of the most glorious years in the history of Lehigh lacrosse. The team played nine games against the best teams in the country, losing only once to St. John’s College. Seven of the teams on this schedule were collegiate twelves, while the other two were professional club teams; the winning season was no easy feat. The 1921 team had experienced players with only a few new ones, allowing O’Neil to develop an extremely competitive team that knew how to play the game from beginning to end. Lehigh won the Southern division championship, defeating Johns Hopkins 5-1. After this victory, a game was arranged with the Northern Division champion, Syracuse, where Lehigh emerged the victor, 3-1. This achievement led to the first time that Lehigh was officially crowned the Intercollegiate Lacrosse Champions of the United States.

Although the 1921 season was the last time Lehigh won a national title, the team continued to play competitively at a national level. It wasn’t until the retirement of the popular head coach, Bill O’Neil, in 1926 that the team began to level off, and the spirit of Lehigh Lacrosse began to diminish. Coach O’Neil was a respected coach whose success was accredited to the 1920 and 1921 seasons; he was a famous lacrosse player himself, and he understood how to make skillful plays. Soon after his retirement, school spirit for lacrosse seems to have waned and the alumni weekend tradition of playing University of Toronto was eliminated. The golden era for Lehigh Lacrosse was over, and for many years lacrosse remained a secondary sport on the Lehigh University campus.

Image from the 1923 Epitome