February 2, 2008
UNH lax alumns won't give up
by Bill Keefe/
From Bob Stevenson’s first moments on this earth, UNH lacrosse was part of his life.
From the second his father smiled upon his birth, Stevenson had made a connection with the Wildcats — his father had a nearly full set of false teeth after losing his choppers playing lacrosse for the Wildcats in the 1930s. It was leather helmets and no facemasks back then.
Stevenson had a lacrosse stick in his bassinet and as a child drove with his father from their Long Island home to Durham or to nearby schools to watch Wildcats games.
When it came time for Stevenson, who’d been playing lacrosse in high school, to choose a college, there was never really a choice — UNH.
Stevenson relished his UNH experience. The Wildcats had a successful run during his career and he was a New England all-star as a senior in 1977. But it was more than that — it was the education he received, the friends he made and the community he belonged to.
In 1997, as part of an athletic department overhaul caused by Title IX and budgetary issues, UNH cut men’s lacrosse, baseball, softball and men’s and women’s golf from its athletic program. Stevenson and many of his teammates and other lacrosse alumni are still feeling the sting.
“I was devastated,” Stevenson said. “For me, UNH lacrosse had been a great tradition, not only for my family, but for a lot of kids that have gone to school there.
“What they were saying, in my mind, the days of being a student-athlete were over. You were either going to be a student or an athlete. You had to play a sport that made money or spend time in the classroom. It’s a great tradition in New England universities to be a student-athlete. That’s what was so disappointing to me, not just for the sport of lacrosse, which was my preference, but for the university as a whole.
“To me it was an end to an era for my family, but also an end to an era for the school. UNH lacrosse had been a great tradition at the university.”
Stevenson, now 53 and working as a consultant in Washington, D.C., is part of an active group of lacrosse alumni that has worked to reinstate men’s lacrosse, which now competes at the club level, to varsity status. Women’s lacrosse is one of 12 varsity women’s sports at UNH compared to just eight for men.
Many lacrosse alumni wrote to the college president asking for reconsideration when men’s lacrosse was first canceled. They pointed out the high percentage of lacrosse alumni that donated to the school, how so many lacrosse alumni went on to successful careers and the long tradition of the sport at the school. They never received a response, they said.
Stevenson’s father, Dr. Gratton Stevenson, donated to UNH until the day he died, his son said. Stevenson, and many lacrosse alumni, gave to UNH until the day the lacrosse program died.
Roger Rydell, a teammate and classmate of Stevenson, remembers writing in response to a solicitation that since he never received a response about the cancellation of lacrosse, he would prefer not to be part of the fundraising activities. He still received a half-dozen more solicitations until they finally stopped.
The lacrosse alums have kept up their lobbying, and last spring, Rydell said, he received a response from the president that the issue was under consideration by the board of trustees. That was the last they heard.
“Along with it being a part of your identity to the school you attended, it’s almost as if they discontinued your major and did away with English or biology,” said Rydell, a New England all-star in 1977 who now works as Goodyear’s vice president for global business communications in Akron, Ohio. “In a sense, everything everybody contributed to make the sport part of the university identity was disregarded as if it didn’t have any value.”
With lacrosse surging in popularity and participation, supporters hope the timing is right for a return. With the popularity and participation comes revenue, and lacrosse could become the next revenue sport at the collegiate level. The NCAA lacrosse championships, featuring the Divisions 2 and 3 finals and the Division 1 semifinals and finals, is the most attended NCAA event and was held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on Memorial Day weekend.
Stevenson, Rydell, John Snodgrass, Ralph Baugher and other UNH lacrosse alums were scheduled to be there, as they are every year. Between the championships and an annual golf outing, the group gets together twice a year anyway, from all parts of the country. What was taken away when men’s varsity lacrosse ended at UNH can’t dissolve what UNH men’s varsity lacrosse created.
“Playing lacrosse is like signing up for a fraternity,” Stevenson said. “You’re going to be in it for the rest of your life. The guys I met playing lacrosse at UNH have remained the best friends I ever had. Those teams were very close and they remain my best friends in life today.”
