Who is the greatest lacrosse player of all time?

[PigPen]

This is a hard question-best shooter: Brad Kotz (remember him?)
best athlete-Jim Brown, just too many stories about this guy, he's like the Paul Bunyan of lax
best all around-Gary Gait
best pole-Petro
best feeder-Jon Hess
honorable mention-Paul Gait (this guy just does not get the credit he deserves),
Rob Kavovit-during the beginning of the Powell reign at SU, even Mikey lists him as one the best players ever. The guy was the complete package and put up some invcredible numbers at SU (he was also pretty sick in h.s.. we never saw the ball in h.s. playing Yorktwon-it was fun to watch him and Carcaterra work their skills, grab a chair from the sidelines and get an ice tea and watch the game from our box.

Goalie?-Man there's a bunch. Of course we have to put in Big Sal, but Quint was too shabby either. Honorable mention for Keeps-George Slablowski, USMA '83, led the country in saves two years in a row-was even a threat offensively.

Just my thoughts.

[Rob Graff]

Goalie: Mr. Quinn from JHU - My HS team put 19 goals in on Sal's Lindenhurst team my Senior year. Quinn was amazing.

Shot - Brian Wood JHU.

Best Athlete - Jim Brown.

Best D - Petro.

Best F/O - Steve Delligati Princeton (pre Tierney) The NCAA changed the rules becasue of Steve's dominance.

Best Offensive Player - Gary Gait.

Best Feeder - Tim Goldstein Cornell 88 - NCAA player of the year, led Big Red to NCAA playoffs.

Yeah, I'm more than a little biased to the old school.

[Brent Burns]

Best F/O - Steve Delligati Princeton (pre Tierney) The NCAA changed the rules becasue of Steve's dominance.

This might not be quite analagous to Rob's statement about Delligati, but it sounds like NCAA had to raise the height of the basketball pole because incoming players were taller. This piques my curiosity as to why NCAA had to change the rules for f/o. What did Delligati do any special to win the faceoffs? What years did he play for the Tigers?

[Rob Graff]

Steve D was a HS AA in 1978. Graduated from P-ton in 1982. I played on a summer league team with him in the Mid-80s on those occasions he would show up, he was unreal.

My recollection is that Steve (and a couple of others) were so dominant that NCAA experimented with a rule that awarded possession to the scored upon team and only had face offs at the beginning of each quarter.

Rob

[Adam Gamradt]

I would have liked to have seen Jim Thorpe.

I've also heard the goalie Jim Brown played with was very, very good.

[DLSLax]

lorne smith

[laxfan25]

Another little-known fact is the leading scorer for Syracuse during the Jim Brown years was Stew Lindsey, the long-time coach at Kingswood School in West Hartford, CT. Stew was quite tall, played on the crease, and had a terrific stick. He would catch a pass on his right side with his back to the goal, and in one quick move - spin the stick and fire a shot backwards over his shoulder, often shooting down at the goalie since he was so tall.
The goalie would be expecting him to turn and shoot, and the ball would come out of nowhere. Got to see him play in his later years for Conn Valley LC, and he still had that great stick move.

[Brent Burns]

I am not sure if this guy played for Hobart in the 1980s, but visually recalling the picture of him sticking out his tongue while running (that was before Michael Jordan famously sticking out his tongue). Lacrosse Magazine sometimes show his picture. For the life of me, I am trying to recall his last name. This is not really a trivia question, mind you.

[Karl Lynch]

To borrow a phrase from the Sheriff of Rockridge, "Excuse me while I whip this out." I just looked at the Hobart Media Guide and my distant memory to try to help you out Brent.

The best Hobart players from the 80s, excluding Defensemen:

Billy Miller - First Team AA 89, 90, 91. Unbelievable attackman.
Shawn Trell - Goalie, Player of the Year.
Matt Kerwick - Current Hobart Coach
Michael DiMaria - Player of the Year, Shared Midfield Line with Kerwick.
Guy Van Arsdale - Goalie, Assistant Coach Notre Dame.
Marc Van Arsdale - Attackman, Assistant Coach Virginia
Ray Gilliam - Attackman, Behind the back goal last time Hobart beat Syracuse.

Rick Gilbert '74 - All time record holder for almost everything Hobart. 444 career points.

My guess is that you are thinking of Billy Miller.

[Brent Burns]

It may be Billy Miller, but for some strange reasons, the name, "Grimaldi" comes up infrequently. I may be confusing this guy with someone from Syracuse (I know it was not Brad Kotz). Tommy Grimaldi or something like that. Guy was really something in his heyday at Hobart.

Like that character, Hercules Poirot from Agnes Christine's novels, he would say something like, "dang my grey cells."

[Lax_Stats]

LMAO @ "Excuse me while I whip this out." What???? "He said, the sheriff is near!" Telegram for Mr. Mongo. Telegram for Mr. Mongo. LOL

[Karl Lynch]

Tom Grimaldi - played in early 80s. I missed watching him play.
Tom Gravante - played in mid and late 80s. I missed watching him also.

[Daniel Morris]

best feeder-Jon Hess
honorable mention-Paul Gait (this guy just does not get the credit he deserves),
Rob Kavovit-during the beginning of the Powell reign at SU, even Mikey lists him as one the best players ever. The guy was the complete package and put up some invcredible numbers at SU (he was also pretty sick in h.s.. we never saw the ball in h.s. playing Yorktwon-it was fun to watch him and Carcaterra work their skills, grab a chair from the sidelines and get an ice tea and watch the game from our box.

Damn Rene! It is like old home week reading your post. I hated Yorktown in high school. Too many top players just doing things above everyone else in the area.

[Brent Burns]

Tom Grimaldi - played in early 80s. I missed watching him play.
Tom Gravante - played in mid and late 80s. I missed watching him also.

That is it! Yeah, it was Tom Grimaldi. When he played for Corning East (NY) H.S. from '79 to '81, he and his team truly vexed Irondequoit. To date, I still have a strong dislike for Corning East.

Sorry, I know we need to get back to the topic on hand.

[PigPen]

Dan-Yorktown and Lakeland (and I guess Mahopac later on) were just too far ahead of everyone else in Section 1 (and they still are). Nyack and Suffern (Darn them!) would turn out some kids every so often-speaking of that-Graf brought up Timmy Goldstein-great feeder, but Hess was simply incredible. In h.s. he did everything-he would simply motor by people without looking like he was giving any effort (sort of like Rod Carew). I have seen this guy so much in h.s and college it's hard not to throw him in with the list of the greastest ever. When Hess graduated, the Rockland/Westchester paper (Journal News) had a full blown characture of the guy on the front page-not of the sports section but THE WHOLE PAPER! It had his career stats-some of which I thought were statisically impossible to obtain. Dan do you remember this?