Title/Author: “We
Showed Baltimore: The Lacrosse Revolution of the 1970’s and Richie Moran’s Big
Red” by Christian Swezey
Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)
Review: Before the 1970’s, college
lacrosse was dominated by five schools, collectively known as the “Big Five” –
Army, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Navy and Virginia. Cornell University’s program
was getting better as the 1970’s approached and went through their 1970 season
undefeated. At that time a team had to selected by writers to win the national
championship. Cornell did not gain the
votes needed, which made their coaches, players and athletic department upset
enough to call for a tournament. This led
to a very successful decade of lacrosse for Cornell and that decade is captured
in this excellent book by Christian Swezey.
Swezey is a well-respected lacrosse writer – his knowledge and
the depth of his research shines in this book that is best described as a
history book of the Cornell lacrosse team for the decade of the 1970’s. Just about any question or piece of
information you would want to know about those squads can be found in these
pages. There is much information on the
two coaches of that decade – Ned Harkness, who also coached the hockey team,
and Richie Moran. Harkness left after
the undefeated 1970 season to take an NHL job, leaving the program to Moran.
That was a wise decision, as the book does a great job in
describing Moran’s teams, his players and his coaching style for the decade. The book never goes too deeply into personal
lives, whether Moran or star players like Eamon McEneaney, Mike French and Tom
Marino. There are some sections which
get very detailed, such the recruiting of McEneaney or even the description of
what some of the players did in a hotel room before an NCAA tournament game
(listing the Friday night TV programs they watched in the hotel room). This does give the reader a decent look at
the person being profiled.
Unlike many books about teams or athletes from different eras,
there is not a lot of text about the social and political climate of the
time. Of course, since this is about a
college sports team during the 1970’s there is some mention of the Vietnam war
and the associated protests. But that
type of commentary is not often found in the book. Instead, more is written about the sport of
lacrosse and those changes, such as the introduction of plastic sticks, which were
much easier for players to use and more affordable than the traditional wooden
sticks. This was an excellent way to introduce
the reader to the changes that were occurring in the sport during the decade.
But the best writing by Swezey is when writing about the
action on the field and associated actions that occurred, such as the switching
of Cornell’s home field from natural grass to artificial turf to accommodate the
training and practice regiments of Moran.
This led to better conditioned players for Cornell and combined with the
outstanding skills of the players, Cornell ended up winning the NCAA
championships three times in the decade – 1971, 1976 and 1977. Their championship games, especially the 1977
one against Johns Hopkins, is great reading for detailed, on-field action.
For any reader interested in the sport of lacrosse, whether
a newcomer or a long-time fan or player, this book is one that must be added to
their library. It doesn’t matter if the reader knows much about the history of
Cornell lacrosse because it is such a great read about the sport itself that
every person who likes the game will like the book.
I wish to thank Cornell University Press for providing a
copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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