1976 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship

The 1976 NCAA Division I tournament championship game was played at Brown University in front of 7,504 fans. The undefeated Cornell Big Red, led by Richie Moran, Mike French and Eamon McEneaney, defeated Maryland and Frank Urso 16 to 13 in overtime.

1976 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship
Dates	May 1976
Teams	8
Finals site	Brown University
Champions	Cornell (2nd title)
Runner-up	Maryland
MOP	Mike French, Cornell
Attendance[1]	7,504 finals 20,819 total
NCAA Division I Men's Championships «1975 1977»

Tournament overview

Throughout the 1970s Cornell University was dominant in lacrosse with four national championship appearances to go with three titles. The 1976 and 1977 versions of the Big Red are generally considered to be among the best college lacrosse teams of all time.

The Big Red's 1976 NCAA championship team featured Hall of Fame players, Eamon McEneaney, Mike French, Robert Henrickson, Dan Mackesey, as well as Hall of Fame coaches, Richie Moran and Michael Waldvogel.

In the matchup that lacrosse fans wanted to see, for the first time in NCAA tournament history two undefeated teams number 1 Maryland and number 2 Cornell met in the championship game. The game did not disappoint as Cornell down 7-2 at halftime outscored Maryland 6 to 2 in the third period to pull within one goal entering the final period. The Terps opened the fourth period with a goal to go up 10 to 8, but the next four goals belonged to Cornell who led 12 to 10 with three minutes to play. Maryland, however, would not back down and get back-to-back goals including a buzzer-beater to knot the game and send the contest into overtime. After an initial goal by the Terps’ Terry Kimball, this was not a sudden death first goal to win finals, Cornell would score four unanswered goals to claim the crown with a 16 to 13 victory.

Cornell earlier in the tournament recorded the only shutout in NCAA tournament history when they blanked Washington and Lee 14-0 in the first round. In a game that featured both snow and pouring rain, the Big Red did the improbable with goalie Dan Mackesey pitching a shutout making 13 saves. The number 7 seed Generals, who had been national semifinalists the previous year, had an impressive offensive unit coming into the contest having outscored its regular season opponents 147 to 89.

In a 22-11 semifinal win against Navy, Maryland's Ed Mullen had 7 goals and 5 assists to set a tournament record of 12 total points in one game.

In the finals, Mike French tied the then-NCAA tournament single-game scoring record, finishing the day with seven goals and four assists, while Dan Mackesey matched the then-tournament record for saves in a single-game with 28 stops.[2][3][4]

Tournament results

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals May 19					Championship May 29
	1	Maryland	17
	8	Brown	8
						1	Maryland	22
						4	Navy	11
	4	Navy	13
	5	North Carolina	9
											1	Maryland (10–1)	13
											2	Cornell (16–0)	16^(i)
	3	Johns Hopkins	11
	6	Massachusetts	9
						2	Cornell	13
						3	Johns Hopkins	5
	2	Cornell	14
	7	Wash. & Lee	0

⁽ⁱ⁾ one overtime

Tournament box scores

Tournament Finals

Team	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
Cornell (16–0)	1	1	6	4	4	16
Maryland (10–1)	1	6	2	3	1	13
Cornell scoring – Mike French 7, Jon Levine 4, Bill Marino 2, Steve Dybus, Gary Malm, Bob Henrickson Maryland scoring – Frank Urso 2, John Lamon 2, Ed Mullen 2, Barry Mitchell, Lance Kohler, Bert Caswell, Bert Olsen, Jim Burnett, Greg Rumpf, Terry Kimball Shots: Maryland 58, Cornell 43

Tournament Semi-Finals

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Cornell	2	2	4	5	13
Johns Hopkins	0	0	1	4	5
Cornell scoring – Jon Levine 5, Bill Marino 3, Mike French 2, Albin Haglund 2, Tom Marino Johns Hopkins scoring – Dave Huntley 2, Tom Myrick, Joe Garavente, Rich Hirsch Shots: Cornell 39, Johns Hopkins 23

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Maryland	10	3	5	4	22
Navy	1	3	3	4	11
Maryland scoring – Ed Mullen 7, Roger Tuck 4, Bert Caswell 3, Bob Ott 2, Frank Urso, Jim Burnett, John Lamon, Mike Farrell, Lance Kohler, Terry Kimball Navy scoring – Mike Canders 4, Bob Holman 2, George Moore 2, Jeff Connolly, Jim Shulson, Emory Chenoweth Shots: Maryland 58, Navy 49

Tournament Quarterfinals

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Maryland	3	8	4	2	17
Brown	0	2	3	3	8
Maryland scoring – Frank Urso 3, Bert Caswell 3, Lance Kohler 2, Ed Mullen 2, Roger Tuck 2, Terry Kimball 2, Bert Olsen, Bob Ott, Mark Shores Brown scoring – Peter Bensley 3, Bob MacLeod 3, Steve Meister, Bill Ohlsen Shots: Maryland 43, Brown 34

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Navy	4	2	2	5	13
North Carolina	1	3	3	2	9
Navy scoring – Skip Miller 3, Bill Claridge 2, Jeff Long 2, Emory Chenoweth, Mike Chanenchuk, Chris Burgin, Bill Stulb, Bob Holman, Mike Canders North Carolina scoring – Dan Cox 2, Steve Sartorio, Paul Worstell, Bill MacGowan, Martin Sutton, Tom Venier, Larry Turheimer, Doug Fierro Shots: Navy 43, North Carolina 34

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Johns Hopkins	2	6	0	3	11
Massachusetts	5	0	3	1	9
Johns Hopkins scoring – Mike O’Neill 4, Rich Hirsch 2, Franz Wittlesburger 2, Tom Myrick, George Johnson, Phil Garavente, Dale Kohler Massachusetts scoring – Fred Menna 5, Jeff Spooner 2, Andy Scheffer, Paul Martin Shots: Johns Hopkins 43, Massachusetts 34

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Cornell	5	3	1	5	14
Washington and Lee	0	0	0	0	0
Cornell scoring – Robert Mitchell 3, Tom Marino 2, Bob Hendrickson, Mike French, Jon Levine, Eamon McEneaney, Dave Bray, John O’Neill, Albin Haglund, Steve Dybus, Keith Reitenbach, Brian Lasda, John Britton. Washington and Lee scoring – Shots: Cornell 39, Washington and Lee 20

Tournament outstanding players

Mike French, Cornell, 20 points, Leading Tournament Scorer

• The NCAA did not designate a Most Outstanding Player until the 1977 national tournament.
  The Tournament outstanding player is listed here as the tournament leading scorer.

Tournament notes

• Cornell's 14-0 victory over Washington and Lee was the first shutout in the tournament's history.

References

1. "NCAA Lacrosse Division I Results / Records" (pdf). NCAA. p. 3 (51). Retrieved 24 April 2014.
2. "Cornell University Men's Lacrosse Media Guide". CSTV.com.
3. "Sports Illustrated archive of 1976 title game". SportsIllustrated.com. June 7, 1976.
4. Rick Wheeler. Big Red Makes History. THE POST-STANDARD. May 20, 1976. pg. 17

External links

• 1976 Title Game clip on YouTube