The tradition of excellence set forth by Johns Hopkins lacrosse is as long and storied as the academic institution itself. In sending the nation's best opposition to repeated defeat for the past 119 years, the Blue Jays have deservedly developed a reputation for combining physical strength and mental toughness to deadly effect. Along the way, the team has amassed a record of collective and individual accomplishments that remains unparalleled in the annals of college sport.
On a cold, snowy day in 1883, coach Elgin Gould assembled a young team of athletes eager to learn a game whose origins dated to pre-Columbian times. Though the inexperienced team would lose its first and only match to Druids, 0-4, they would be remembered as the men that blazed the trail for over a century of world-class lacrosse teams.
After a four-year absence from the university, men's lacrosse finally earned its first win in 1888 against Pattersons, 6-2. A spectator at the time could have hardly imagined the achievements to come. Over 1000 games have followed since then, and today the Blue Jays stand on the verge of their 800th victory. No other team in the country even approaches such a total.
From those humble beginnings, the Blue Jays have gone on to win an incredible 42 national championships and a record seven NCAA Championships, the first coming in 1891 and the most recent in 1987. Such dominance of a sport by one school over so long a period is unheard of anywhere. By comparison, the University of Notre Dame football squad has been awarded a share of the national championship only 19 times and the UCLA Men's basketball team just 11 times.
Remarkably, Johns Hopkins has participated in every NCAA men's lacrosse championship since the tournament's inception in 1972. This JHU streak is the longest by any team in any Division I sport. Only four times has the team been seeded any lower than fourth in the tourney's entire 28-year history.
The Blue Jays have finished the season undefeated 11 times in school history, the last time in 1984. No other college lacrosse program has had more all-time victories, national championships or All-Americans than Johns Hopkins.
As well as dominating the NCAA, the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team has represented the United States in the Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1932. In 1928, the Hopkins team shared the gold medal with Canada (!) and was the exclusive winner in 1932. Hopkins lacrosse remains the only college team ever sent to represent the United States at an Olympic Games.
These outstanding teams have produced some of the greatest athletes in the history of college lacrosse. From Douglas Turnbull in 1922 to A.J. Haugen and Dan Denihan in 2000, Hopkins has produced a national record 167 First Team All-Americans. That is just short of the combined totals of Syracuse, Princeton and Virginia. Only Maryland, with 106 first teamers, comes remotely close to Hopkins' record on its own.
Johns Hopkins has had at least one player earn First Team All-America honors in 28 of the last 29 years and 71 of the past 79 years in which the team has been selected. This includes 1944, when JHU did not field a team due to the Second World War. In addition, with six All-American selections in 2000, Hopkins has now had at least five All-Americans in each of the last six seasons and 27 of the last 28.
These outstanding individuals have lent their talents to create teams that have always been greater than the sum of their parts. Any list of all-time Hopkins greats must include Terry Riordan (1995), whose career goals (184) and total points (247) remain team records as well as all-time assists leader Dave Marr (1996, 134 assists) and Jonathan Marcus (1996), whose 877 career saves appear as unbeatable as Cal Ripken's Ironman streak. Other notables include four-time First Team All-America goalie Quint Kessenich (1990), the punishing defenseman Church Yearley (1934) and the team's famed face-off specialist Jerome Schnydman (1967), who remains at Hopkins as special assistant to University President William Brody.
These great players have always been brought to even greater heights by the sharp minds and careful teaching of many of the sport's greatest coaches. The team has had 22 coaches from Elgin R. I. Gould in 1883 to our current mastermind, David Pietramala.
Among the many outstanding coaches include Bob Scott, who coached the Blue Jays from 1954 to 1974 (longer than any other coach) and won a school record 158 matches and "Father" Bill Schmeisser, a Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee in 1957, who won eight national championships in his 10 years as Blue Jays head coach intermittently from 1902 to 1925.
Few teams across the country possess the rare combination of talent, coaching and desire necessary to succeed at Division I lacrosse. Rarer still are those that have sacrificed enough to win consistently, year after year. Indeed, over the decades, as college lacrosse has grown even more sophisticated and expanded across the nation, only Johns Hopkins University lacrosse has remained at the pinnacle of the game, an exemplar of greatness to which all others strive to match but none ever exceed.
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