The Morgan Lacrosse Story

Last Thursday I had some free time. Free time at Hopkins, as we all know, is pretty rare, and I decided to take advantage of my hour of nothingness by browsing through Netflix's selection of movies that I could "watch instantly." I went through comedies and dramas, thrillers and westerns, but nothing caught my eye.

I was looking for something a little different, and then, all of a sudden, I saw it in the documentary section: The Morgan Lacrosse Story.

I'm not really sure why I picked the movie, but its story was compelling. It followed the first few years of nearby Morgan State's short-lived men's lacrosse team during the 1970s. Playing an overwhelmingly white sport, a group of African-American students at Morgan State formed their own varsity lacrosse team and rose to such a level that they beat top-ranked (and 100 percent white) Washington & Lee in 1975 in a historic upset.?The team and their victories were larger than sports and even though the team folded in 1981, the story lives on.

After the movie ended, I did some thinking. The fact that the team lasted only 11 years bothered me. There are more kids playing lacrosse in 2009 than ever; it is the fastest-growing sport in the country. Could there really have been more interest in fielding a team at Morgan State 25 years ago than there is today? Baltimore is the center of the lacrosse world; the sport's hall of fame is here, and many of the sport's best teams play in the area. How could a school surrounded by such history go from having a top-ranked team to none at all?

It's somewhat hard to pinpoint exactly why the team folded; some people cite a loss of interest, while others blame Title IX. Regardless, it probably was a challenge to maintain a full roster of mostly African-American players when the sport was and still is mostly white. Still, I couldn't believe that such a relatively successful and historically significant team couldn't be revived, especially here in Baltimore.

Nowadays, thanks to pop culture and politics, Americans are regularly exposed to talk of differences in cultures and the bridging of gaps among various racial, ethnic and religious groups. At Hopkins, however, we stay stuck in our bubble of homogeneity, rarely going beyond St. Paul Street to take in the diversity that exists in Baltimore. The Collegetown Shuttle goes to Goucher and MICA, Towson and Loyola, showing us all of the mostly white schools that exist here.

But Morgan State isn't on the Collegetown route, and it probably hasn't even occurred to many of us that there is another major academic institution next door. For all intents and purposes, it's a school about which 99 percent of Hopkins students know nothing.

We at Hopkins have all the lacrosse resources in the world, from sponsors to facilities to state-of-the-art equipment. Our administration is always talking about fostering better relations with the rest of Baltimore, and the history of racial awareness at Hopkins is, for the most part, not positive. Why not develop a joint program with Morgan State whose aims would be twofold: increase the opportunities for young Baltimore City kids to play and learn about lacrosse, and simultaneously redevelop a varsity lacrosse program at Morgan State?

Both campuses' athletic facilities could be utilized, with Hopkins and Morgan State organizing free camps for Baltimore kids who one day might play for either school. Hopkins lacrosse players could visit Baltimore high schools (of which the majority have varsity lacrosse teams) to talk about and promote the sport as a viable option for some of the city's best young athletes. They could convince them that, just like basketball and football, lacrosse could be a free ticket to some of the country's best schools.

Since 2006 Morgan has had a club lacrosse team, so the idea of them expanding its program, supported by an influx of the increasing number of young lacrosse players from Baltimore, is not that far-fetched. Sure, some of those kids might end up at Morgan State, but just as many might go to Hopkins. Not only improving our own team and city-wide image at the same time, but also creating a competitive cross-town rival? Now that would be a victory in any sport.