Bison Men's Lacrosse Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Men's lacrosse debuted as a varsity sport at Bucknell in 1968. Fueled by by an already successful club program, the Bison went 6-3 overall and 4-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference that season, and then 10-1/7-0 on the way to a MAC title in year two in 1969. The team has rarely wavered from that early success, and more than a half-century later Bucknell boasts a top-notch program that annually ranks in the top 20 nationally while competing in the Patriot League, which is one of the nation's premier lax conferences. Amazingly, Bucknell has had only two head coaches in its 53-year history. Sid Jamieson, one of the sport's true coaching legends, transitioned the program from the club to varsity ranks, and he was in charge for 38 years before handing the reins to his longtime assistant, Frank Fedorjaka, following the 2005 season. Another incredible figure is that the men's lacrosse program has produced 13 members of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 53 years, and in the program's first 38 years, it had at least one future Hall-of-Fame player on the roster in 31 ot those seasons. Over the next several days we will take a look back through the decades and hear from many of the top players who helped shape the program's history. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.

1960s
This is the decade when it all started! After six successful years competing at the club level, lacrosse officially became Bucknell's 11th varsity sport in May of 1967. Sid Jamieson, a 1964 Cortland graduate, had been the club lacrosse coach for two seasons, in addition to his duties as an assistant football coach, physical education instructor, and Bucknell's dean of men. Jamieson was selected to be the varsity program's first head coach, and already stocked with talent from the club days, the success was immediate. The varsity team finished 6-3 overall and 4-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference in 1968, and a year later the squad went 10-1 and claimed the MAC title with a perfect 7-0 league mark. Ed Farver '69 (first team) and Jim McKee '69 (second team) were College Division All-Americans that year, when the Bison defeated the likes of Penn State and Delaware and outscored opponents 135-47 on the season. Joining us to discuss the early days of the varsity program are Jamieson, Farver and McKee, along with Jim Reese '69 and Lou Kissling '71. Farver, McKee and Kissling are all enshrined in the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame. Farver was the MAC Most Valuable Player in 1969, he was selected to the North-South All-Star Game, and he captained both the lacrosse and basketball teams as a senior. McKee was a First Team All-MAC selection in 1969, in addition to his All-America honor. Reese was the goalie on those first two varsity teams, and his save percentages of .712 in 1969 and .693 in 1968 still rank second and third in the Bucknell record book. His .700 career save percentage also ranks No. 2. He was a Second Team All-MAC selection as a senior. Kissling captained the 1971 team, when he handed out 33 assists, a figure that still ranks eighth in Bucknell history. Kissling was the MAC MVP in 1971, and he was a two-time All-American.

1970s
The Bison men's lacrosse program had played only two varsity seasons by the time the decade of the 1970s came around, but even in that short amount of time Bucknell had already won a league championship and established itself as a high-quality program. In 1975 the Bison moved from the Middle Atlantic Conference to the East Coast Conference, and in their first six seasons in their new league they finished first in 1978 and second in every other campaign. Hall-of-Famer Lou Kissling earned All-America honors in the first two years of the decade, and later Hall-of-Famers Peter von Hoffman (twice) and Tom Sanders earned All-America honors. Von Hoffman remains one of the top scorers in team history. His 220 career points held up as the school record for 26 years, and today only Chris Cara (249) and Will Sands (243) hae bettered that mark. Von Hoffman, who was a four-time All-ECC selection and the 1979 ECC Most Valuable Player, joins Sanders, Jim Nesbitt '77 and Don Shassian '77 P'08 on today's discussion. Sanders set a school record with 664 career saves, a mark that still ranks second today. His 34 saves against Penn State in 1977 remains the school record. Nesbitt was a two-time All-ECC selection who was also a four-year letterman with the Bison football team. Shassian captained the '77 squad and was also a two-time All-ECC pick.

1980s
The Bison competed in the East Coast Conference for the entirety of the 1980s -- the transition to the Patriot League came during the 1990-91 academic year -- and the team finished fourth or better in the ECC in nine of the 10 years in the '80s. That includes the terrific 1985 team that finished 4-1 in ECC play to capture the program's first league title since 1978. The eight total wins that season were the team's most since the 1969 squad finished 10-1. On an individual level, the 1980s Bison squads produced a pair of Hall-of-Famers and All-Americans in Rodney Brown '83 and Tom Cusick '87. Brown, who was a two-time All-ECC defender and a North-South Game participant, is one of four outstanding alumni on today's chat. He is joined by John Morris '82 P'10, Bob Rhein '85 and Doug Klaber '86 P'20. Morris was a three-time All-ECC pick in the early part of the decade. Rhein earned a pair of All-ECC citations and was also an All-Region selection as a captain and standout member of the men's soccer team. Klaber, whose daughter Sophia played for the Bison women's lacrosse team before graduating last spring, captained the 1986 team.

1990s
The decade of the 1990s was highlighted by one of the most remarkable -- and controversial -- seasons in team history. The 1996 squad turned heads nationally with a perfect 12-0 season, the only undefeated campaign in team history. The Bison beat three ranked teams -- Army, Penn State and Hobart -- allowed a national-low 6.1 goals per game, won nine of the 12 games (including all three against top-20 teams) by a margin of at least three goals, and finished the regular season ranked ninth in the country. But that was before the days of an automatic qualifier for the Patriot League champion, and when the NCAA Tournament committee announced the 12-team field, Bucknell was shockingly not on the list. Making things even tougher to swallow was that 15th-ranked Army, which the Bison thumped 14-10 earlier in the season, was selected. The snubbing of the Bison fueled national debate and plenty of outrage, but that squad can take solace in the fact that it was the only unbeaten team in the nation that season and certainly one of the finest in the storied history of Bucknell lacrosse. The Bison endured a couple of rebuilding seasons after losing a sterling senior class in '96, but by the end of the decade they were right back near the top of the league, setting the stage for the team's first NCAA berth in 2001. Joining us on this episode are four standouts from this decade: Michael Conway '92, Hall-of-Famer Justin Zackey '94, John Golaszewski '99 and Alex Rudis '00. Conway captained the 1992 team, was a two-time All-Patriot League selection and was named the 1992 Patriot League Player of the Year. Zackey is the most prolific scorer in team history. More than a quarter-century after his graduation he still holds the school records for goals in a season (63) and career (138) as well as points (79) in a season. He averaged 4.2 goals per game in 1993, the best figure in the nation, and was both an All-Patriot League and Honorable Mention All-American as a junior and senior. Just as impressive was Zackey's work in the classroom, where he was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He later earned a prestigious Luce Foundation Scholarship and studied ethnic issues in China during a year-long project. Golaszewski was another impact scorer for the Bison. A two-year captain, he scored 41 goals in 1998, one of only six 40-goal seasons in team history. He was a two-time All-Patriot League selection and the 1999 Patriot League Offensive player of the Year. Rudis captained the 2000 squad and is still one of the top faceoff men in team annals. He ranks in the top 10 in season and career faceoff wins as well as ground balls in a season.


2000s
Another glory period for the Bucknell men's lacrosse program was the 2000s, a decade that saw the Bison earn eight All-America citations, 12 Patriot League major player of the year awards and six Major League Lacrosse draft picks. And then there was the matter of team dominance. The Bison won or shared Patriot League regular-season titles six times in those 10 years, including four years in a row, and in 2001 Sid Jamieson's squad mde it into the NCAA Tournament field for the first time in program history. That team went 10-4 overall and 6-0 in Patriot League play to gain the league's automatic bid three years before the addition of a postseason conference tournament. The 2001 team opened the season with a 9-4 win over North Carolina, won 12-10 at Lehigh on the final day of the season to clinch the title, and then dropped a hard-fought 12-7 decision to Notre Dame at Army's Michie Stadium in the NCAA Tournament. Bucknell went 5-1 in PL play in both 2002 and 2003 and missed out on the automatic bid on tiebreakers, and then the Patriot League Tournament was instituted in 2004. There were plenty of other landmark wins in the 2000s, perhaps none bigger than a stunning 7-6 double-overtime upset at No. 1 Maryland in 2006. One constant throughout the 2000s was a stellar defense, as the Bison routinely ranked high among the national leaders in goals against. Two standout defensive players from that era -- Hall-of-Fame goalie Justin Sussman '03 and defensive middie Paul Stansik '07 -- join us for this conversation, along with two of the top scorers in team history in Hall-of-Famer Chris Cara '05 and Austin Winter '10. Sussman was the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year in both 2002 and 2003, and he was an Honorable Mention All-American, a North-South Game participant and the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2003. His 7.81 career goals-against average was a school record at the time and now ranks second, and he is fourth all-time in career save percentage and total saves. Stansik captained the 2007 Bison squad and was a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection that season. He was selected in the seventh round of the MLL Supplemental Draft by Chicago in 2009. Cara is Bucknell's all-time leading point producer with 249 in his brilliant four-year career. As a junior, Cara led the nation in scoring with 78 points. He was a four-time All-Patriot League selection and was the 2002 PL Rookie of the Year and 2004 and 2005 PL Offensive Player of the Year. He was an Honorable Mention All-American as a junior, and then a year later he landed a Third Team All-America nod. He was a third-round pick by Long Island in the 2005 MLL Draft and was a Christy Mathewson Award winner as the top athlete in his class. Winter ranks fifth all-time in both assists (117) and points (194) at Bucknell, and he was a rare four-time First Team All-Patriot League selection and three-time Honorable Mention All-American. Winter was a North-South Game participant in 2010.

2010s
In our first installment of Bison Men's Lacrosse Through the Decades, we look at the most recent decade of the 2010s. The Bison posted seven winning seasons in those 10 years and finished .500 or better in Patriot League play in nine of them. The Bison tied for the Patriot League regular-season title as recently as 2018, when they were 11-4 overall and 7-1 in league play and barely missed an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The highlight of the decade clearly came in 2011, when the Bison turned in one of the finest seasons in school history. The squad finished 14-3, including a perfect 6-0 Patriot League record, and then routed Lehigh and Colgate by a combined score of 23-8 to win the PL Tournament on their home field. Two weeks later Bucknell went to Virginia for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the Bison battled the eventual national champions in one of the best first-round games in the history of the tournament. The game featured a little bit of everything, including a first-half lightning delay, and the teams traded blows all day long before the Cavaliers delivered the final punch in sudden-death overtime to win 13-12. All told, Bucknell had nine All-Americans during the decade, including three -- Will Sands '18, David Dickson '15 and Billy Eisenreich '12 -- who made the Third Team. Dickson and Sands join Jackson Place '14 and Sean O'Brien '18 for our leadoff discussion. Place was a two-time All-PL defenseman and was an Honorable Mention All-American in 2014. He played in the North-South Game as a senior and has gone on to a successful career in Major League Lacrosse. Dickson was an exquisite feeder who broke the Bucknell single-season assists record with 48 during his All-America season in 2013 (Sands topped it with 55 five years later). Dickson ranks fourth in Bison annals with 132 career assists and sixth with 184 points. He was a four-time All-Patriot League selection, including First Team nods in 2013 and 2015. He was also a North-South Game participant and was selected in the seventh round of the MLL draft by Denver. O'Brien closed out his career with two monster seasons, culminating with a pair of First Team All-Patriot League citations and an Honorable Mention All-America nod. His 42 goals in 2018 are fifth-most in a season in Bucknell history, and he became the first Bison in 20 years to top the 40-goal mark. Sands quarterbacked the Bison offense throughout his brilliant career, and he graduated as the school record-holder for season (55) and career (141) assists. He also ranks No. 2 all-time in career points (243), just six shy of Hall-of-Famer Chris Cara's record total, and Sands' 102 career goals rank sixth all-time. He was a three-time All-Patriot League selection and a two-time Academic All-Patriot League pick. After playing in the North-South Game as a senior he was taken in the third round of the MLL Draft by Boston.

Bison Men's Lacrosse Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

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