History of CCNY Lacrosse

The sport of lacrosse took root at City College in 1887 when Harvey Mitchell, an academic tutor, introduced the game to the student body. In 1888 the college fielded its first ever team and played its first full season, joining New York City area schools like Manhattan College, NYU, and Stevens Tech, which all began fielding lacrosse teams in the early- to mid-1880s. CCNY played five games that first year, earning one victory against the New Jersey Athletic Club. 

The team played 5-10 games each season during the early years and lacrosse became a popular outlet for the young men attending CCNY in those days. A 3-2 win over Stevens in 1889 marked the college’s first victory over another college team and it was followed the next year with a win over Lehigh. In 1891 the team didn’t play any college opponents, but went 9-0 against local men’s clubs, some of the best playing the game. The club was suspended for a year in 1894, but picked back up in 1895, and CCNY earned a win over Cornell in 1896 and lost a 2-1 game to Johns Hopkins in 1897. According to the NY Times, CCNY was crowned North American champion in 1897, but few records remain. 

By the early 1900s, CCNY lacrosse was facing off with traditional powers like Harvard, Columbia, Hobart, Penn, Swarthmore and Lehigh, and playing competitively. There were numerous college lacrosse associations before 1905, and in 1903 CCNY won their association’s “national championship” banner. In 1910 CCNY saw a dip in interest when it came to lacrosse, the team was suspended, and the college did not see very much lacrosse again until 1926. A full JV season was played in 1928, and a varsity team was back on campus in the spring of 1929. CCNY was admitted to the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) that same year. 

In 1929 Leon “Chief” Miller was named the new head coach of the program, and Coach Miller taught the game to a new generation of players, and successfully brought a varsity team back to CCNY. The next 50 years would prove to be some of the brightest in the history of the sport at the college. Wins were earned over Hobart, Long Island Univ, Western Maryland, Springfield, Union, Navy Lafayette, RPI, Drexel, Army “B”, Rutgers, Stevens, Hofstra, Loyola, Tufts, Hamilton, Ohio State, and Adelphi. The team also played powerhouse programs like the Army “A” team, Princeton, Cortland, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Syracuse. Coach Miller helped mold numerous All-Americans, and the vast majority had never even heard of lacrosse before enrolling at City College, let alone played the game. 

In 1959 Coach Miller had to step down due to failing health, after over 30 years of service to the team. A former player of Miller’s, George Baron, took over as the head of the program. Baron was CCNY’s first ever 1 st Team All American, and was regarded as the finest goaltender in the entire country in 1947. Coming back to CCNY as the new lacrosse coach, Baron took a page from Coach Miller’s book, and led the team to impressive success, even though the vast majority of City College players had still never picked up a stick before college. 

The late 50s and early 1960s saw City compete with some of the best teams in the country, and the team put together back-to-back winning seasons a number of times. Through 1967, CCNY saw a number of players earn All American recognition, and the team regularly played  competitive matches with local powerhouse college programs like NY Maritime, Hartwick, FDU Madison, Siena, and Villanova. 

The team’s ability to compete with the best of college lacrosse started to drop off in the late 1960s, and in 1973 the team’s home stadium, Lewisohn Stadium, was demolished. Following the 1975 season Coach Baron retired after 16 years at the helm. After Lewisohn was torn down, a campaign was started to raise funds for a new athletic complex on the South Campus. The Goldman Sports Complex was opened in 1993 and lacrosse was again played on campus for a period of ten years. 

In 2004 the D3 lacrosse season was canceled, and CCNY lacrosse went back to club status. Since 2005, lacrosse has played on a club program level, and has received incredible support from the program’s alumni, as the dream of lacrosse at the City College of New York lives on. (Compiled by Willy Rodriguez and Connor Wilson)