The last decade has passed and we look back at some awesome college lacrosse. The ‘almost’ Championships of Duke which were brought down by superior coaching, the 2009 season dominated by Virginia until the playoffs, the flurry of OT games in both the regular season and playoffs, Hopkins return to winning Championships after an 18 year drought, Final Four appearances by Navy, Umass and Delaware – and the fantastic players, all the way through the decade!

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And how does the decade look, now that we reflect on it? Well, Syracuse did very well, winning 5 national titles, including the last two. Could this be a dynasty? To answer that question I looked at the national championship records of the past decades.

First off, remember that there has been more than one national championship. The NCAA Men’s Division I championship, based on a tournament, began in 1971. Before that, during the years of 1936 – 1972 the national championship was the Wingate Trophy. The Wingate trophy was preceded by the USILA title, from 1881 to 1935. Because they were not based on a tournament, ties were possible in both the Wingate Trophy and the USILA championship. Combining the three, there have been 143 champions, covering the period 1881- 2009, except for the years 1948 and 1990.

The historical data show that powerful teams do not fit neatly into decades. I found some that seemed obvious and they are listed below, along with the years and their number of titles during that period:

TEAM PERIOD TITLES/ SEASONS
Harvard 1881 – 1887 6 in 6
Hopkins 1898 – 1915 12 in 20
Navy 1918 – 1925 6 in 10
Hopkins 1926 – 1934 6 in 9
Maryland 1936 – 1940 4 in 6
Navy 1960 – 1967 8 in 10
Hopkins 1978 – 1987 6 in 9
Syracuse 1988 – 1995 5 in 7
Princeton 1996 – 2001 4 in 6
Syracuse 2002 – 2009 4 in 8

The historical data also show some interesting facts. The teams listed above were from Maryland for an amazing 89 years (1898 to 1987), when Syracuse asserted upstate New York’s claim on the sport. Some unexpected title winners showed up in my research -- Swarthmore (!) won 4 titles (1901, 1904, 1905, and 1910). St John’s of Md(!) had a streak of 3 national championships (1929 – 1931) -- Currently, St. John’s only intercollegiate sport is croquet. Navy won 8 titles in a row in 1960 – 1967. Syracuse’s first title was in 1922 (tie with Navy), followed by 1983, 1988, 1989, and 1990.

For what it is worth, I compiled a listing of the Team of the Decade from the 1880’s through the 2000’s; It sort of makes you realize that there is a lot of history and tradition that we don’t think of each day. The Teams of the Decade are listed below. Because there are occasionally two teams with an equal number of titles in a given decade, note that listings in consecutive decades to likely identify more powerful dynasties.

DECADE TEAM (S) TITLES
1880’s Harvard 6
1890’s Lehigh 4
1900’s Hopkins 6
1910’s Navy/Hopkins 3/3
1920’s Navy 4
1930’s Maryland/Hopkins 3/3
1940’s Hopkins/ Navy 3/3
1950’s Hopkins/Army 3/3
1960’s Navy 8
1970’s Hopkins 4
1980’s Hopkins 4
1990’s Princeton 5
2000’s Syracuse 5

Notice that the Princeton and Syracuse decades were 5 wins -- A number only achieved three times before, and never without the possibility of multiple (shared) titles. These two teams may be ones we look back upon with awe. From a historical perspective, we can see that Hopkins is listed in 7 of the 13 decades, and that Navy was a real powerhouse in the first 6 decades of the 20th century.

A thought that comes to mind when looking at these statistics is who has won the most titles. When that is considered, some of the teams with more titles are not a surprise based on today’s winning teams, while some are quite a surprise. The all-time leader is Hopkins with 34 titles, followed by Navy (21), Princeton (15), and Syracuse (13). These are followed by Maryland (8) and Army (8). If these totals are adjusted by counting ‘shared’ titles as a fraction the numbers of titles change but the order remains the same: Hopkins (34-2/3), Navy (17-2/3), Princeton (13-1/3), and Syracuse (12-1/2). When only the 38 NCAA Men’s Division 1 titles are considered, the leaders are: Syracuse with 10 and Hopkins with 9. (Also Princeton with 6; Virginia and North Carolina with 4 each; Cornell with 3; Maryland with 2) This makes sense, since the NCAA data reflect only the last four decades.

As lacrosse increases in popularity and the number of high school and college players and teams grow, collegiate lacrosse will only become more competitive and things like Harvard’s streak of 6 titles in 1881 – 1887 and Navy’s 8 in a row in the 1960’s will become much less likely. So-called ‘modern” (post-1970) teams have at best achieved three in a row -- Hopkins (1978 – 1980), Syracuse (1988 – 1990), and Princeton (1996 – 1998) (with the possibility for three in a row from Syracuse in 2010). These are likely to be the longest streaks we will see for some time, but who knows?

Going into the 2010 season, we may have a ‘dynasty’ team in Syracuse. If they win in 2010, they will have achieved three in a row, which seems to be the limit for the modern Men’s Division One game.

In the Laxnews.com College Beat 121, James Land noted that the critical question in 2010 is whether Syracuse will ‘three-peat’. Of course, as the records tell us, dynasties can fade away. With the 2010 season approaching fast, we may see powerful Cornell and North Carolina teams emerge; Cornell has five titles beginning in 1970 and was dominant in the early 1970s, while North Carolina is more of a newcomer, with 4 beginning in 1981. And the Duke talent built up by Mike Pressler could get Duke their first title ever or the talented Virginia team could fulfill what seemed inevitable last year. Both teams will likely be factors in the title race again.

One thing we can be sure of is that it probably will not work out like the pre-season prognosticators predict (including me), and it will be great to watch!

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