by John Middaugh '68

Lacrosse arrived at The College of Wooster in the spring of 1965 when several members of the freshmen class who hailed from Baltimore got together and formed a club. At first, there were only a handful of players who both had lacrosse skills and had played the game previously.  But, during the spring of 1965, as passers-by observed the strange behavior of a few enthusiasts throwing the ball around, interest in the sport grew rapidly.

One of the key leaders of the movement was Cliff Romig, who played football for Wooster.  Cliff was able to teach the rudiments of the game to several of his friends, and recruited Jeff McIntyre (also a Wooster football player), Jim Mikkelsen, and Don Crocker, all three lacrosse defensemen, and Pete Robinson who became our first goalie.

One of the less likely lacrosse enthusiasts was John Middaugh, at 6'3" and 155 pounds, not the first person selected during a pickup football game.  John had picked up lacrosse during his high school years in Baltimore but had not played competitively before arriving at Wooster.  Cliff needed someone who could catch and throw a lacrosse ball, so John was in.  By coincidence, John and Cliff were linked: their fathers, both ministers, knew each other professionally.

One day Cliff, Jeff, and John met in Cliff's room and hatched a plan to establish a lacrosse club.  Cliff and Jeff went out and recruited heavily from sixth section, and in future years brought Steve Lynch and Tom Lamonica, both from Baltimore and accomplished lacrosse players, to the team.

Fortunately, John's father knew Gaylord (Peck) Auer, the owner of Bacharach Rasin, the leading company supplying lacrosse equipment in the United States in the 1960s.  Peck Auer spent his life dedicated to the game of lacrosse, and he worked to improve lacrosse equipment to keep the game safe. Some of the mileposts of his distinguished career include:

• In 1940 he was one of the organizers of the first North-South All-Star game at Johns Hopkins University, and he served on its executive committee for 20 years.
• In 1945 he became a honorary life member of the US Lacrosse Coaches Association.
• In 1961 he received the Man of the Year award from the US Inter-collegiate Lacrosse Association.
• In 1963 he became the curator of the Museum of Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
• In 1968 in his honor the College of Wooster established the Peck Auer Most Valuable Player Award, given yearly to the school's outstanding lacrosse player.
• In 1968 he became the Vice-President of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

In the 1930s Peck negotiated to obtain wooden lacrosse sticks hand-made in Cornwall Island, Canada by the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Indians.  He was named honorary Indian Chief in 1935.  During the next five decades, he was North America's largest supplier of lacrosse sticks.  One of his important innovations was to establish a loan-kit program to supply high schools and colleges lacrosse equipment.  The College of Wooster was to benefit immensely from this program.

During spring break of 1965, John met with Peck Auer at his home in Baltimore.  Peck was excited to learn that a few Baltimore students had founded a lacrosse club and were interested in developing lacrosse at Wooster.  He generously donated a lacrosse equipment kit to the newly formed Wooster Lacrosse Club.

Stunned by this good fortune, John returned to Wooster and wrote up the By-laws and Constitution for the Wooster Lacrosse Club just in time to receive a full kit from Bacharach Rasin that consisted  of 2 lacrosse nets, 30 lacrosse sticks, 2 dozen lacrosse balls, 20 helmets, 20 shoulder pads, 20 arm guards, and 20 pairs of lacrosse gloves.   Fortunately, John lived in a small off-campus house with a cellar and not in the dorm.  There was ample room to store all of the equipment.

Cliff, Jeff, and John spent one weekend purchasing 3" pipe and fittings to create 2 lacrosse goals -- painting the pipes bright orange.  Cliff was able to convince the football coach to look the other way while we borrowed the chalk, the chalk wheel, and the stringer to line out the creases and the playing field on the old football practice field next to the gym.

John's brother was a sophomore at Oberlin College in 1965 and was a member of the Oberlin lacrosse team.  John called the Oberlin College lacrosse coach who agreed to host a lacrosse game one Saturday afternoon at Oberlin.  With this incentive, the lacrosse club members got serious to recruit enough players to field a team for the big day.   Team members had to borrow cars from the few friends lucky enough to have one so we could make the 50 mile trip to Oberlin.  We had a respectable showing, but the Wooster team lost 12- 4.

The following year, the volunteer club team members established a 6 day-a-week spring practice schedule, meeting on the old football field at 3:30 or 4:00 every day.  To start practice, the team ran around the campus together for a mile or two to condition and warm up, and then hit the field for individual skill building drills, strategy sessions, and then an all out scrimmage.  Every practice ended with self-inflicted wind sprints, and every session of wind sprints ended up with several players having dry heaves on the field.

Players had to fork over $5.00 dues to the club to print fliers of our schedule that were placed around town.  Both the college and town newspapers covered our games.  Through Peck Auer, John was provided an introduction to several established coaches with the US Lacrosse Coaches Association (USLCA).  Its president was a lacrosse coach in Hersey, PA.  He was totally supportive and sent packets of materials on coaching strategy, drills, player individual skill and technique development, and offensive and defensive plays.

Don Crocker was a great defenseman and enthusiastic lacrosse advocate who hailed from the Boston area.  In these days, one of the great deals was that we could fly standby -- if we could catch a ride or hitchhike to Cleveland.  It was actually cheaper to fly standby than to take the Greyhound Bus.  On one such flight, Don sat next to a distinguished gentleman and struck up a conversation.  The distinguished gentleman turned out to be Walter D. Foss, president of the Wooster Brush Company.  Mr. Foss became a supporter of Don and the club, eventually donating hundreds of dollars to support our team.

John arranged to make a presentation to the College of Wooster Board of Trustees during one of their winter board meetings in 1966 to ask them to adopt the lacrosse as a varsity sport and to join the NCAA for the spring of 1966.  The lacrosse coach in Hershey told John that the USLCA had a couple of movies that promoted lacrosse.  In hopes of selling the idea to the board, Pete Robinson and John drove from Wooster to Hershey in the middle of a snowstorm along the Pennsylvania turnpike in an all night run to pick up the movies and return to Wooster in time for the presentation. In spite of a passionate and exceptionally articulate presentation and a successful showing of the lacrosse movie, the board remained unconvinced and voted not to support making lacrosse an official Wooster sport.

During the next two years, John called all of the college lacrosse coaches in Ohio to arrange games and put together a schedule.  The team was successful in playing 6 games in 1966, 8 games in 1967, and 11 games in 1968.  From 1966 – 1968, the schedule included Ohio University, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio State, Wittenberg, Defiance, Ashland, and Muskingum (not every year).  In 1969, Notre Dame was added to the list of Wooster's lacrosse opponents.

Until 1968, the Wooster Lacrosse Club remained totally independent from Wooster College.  The club was allowed to use the field next to the old gym for practices and games.  The team was responsible for everything -- chalking the field (by hand), owning and storing all the equipment and goals, arranging the games, recruiting new players and teaching them the game, scheduling practices, overseeing practices, and begging the loan of cars to transport us to and from the away games.  Players often changed into uniforms in the back seat of the cars, parked by the side of the field at away games.

Wooster's first-ever varisty men's lacrosse team in '68.

Among our most notable successes was hosting the Ohio State University lacrosse team for a home game in 1967.  Although the Wooster team lost 8-3, it trailed only 3-2 at half time.  It was hard not to be intimidated when 2 Ohio State buses arrived and disgorged more than 60 players, many of whom were on the Ohio State Varsity Football team and played lacrosse to keep in shape.  At the time, our club had a roster of 16 or 18 players – barely enough to field a team.  The Ohio State Team was surprised to find that we didn't have use of the college locker rooms in the gym, so their team had to change on their buses.In 1966, Peck Auer sent additional equipment (helmets, shoulder and arm pads, gloves, nets, and sticks) to support our developing team.  Success on the field was phenomenal, and we had a small but constantly growing audience of students, faculty, and townspeople who came to watch the team play.

Our greatest success was receiving a letter in the fall of 1967 from the NCAA inviting our team to officially join the conference.  It is a source of satisfaction and pride that a voluntary club that owned all of its own lacrosse equipment had 2 full seasons of winning records (one an undefeated season) against formidable opponents. In spite of having no official support (or financial) support from the Board of Trustees, the team had convinced the other college coaches that it was a legitimate partner.  The Board of Trustees voted to join the NCAA, adopt lacrosse as a full varsity sport at Wooster, and provide a coach for the 1968 season.  Part of the deal was an agreement to give all of the club-owned equipment to the College.

In 1968 in honor of Peck Auer, the team voted to establish the Peck Auer Most Valuable Player Award.  That year was also the year that the lacrosse hall of fame was dedicated at Johns Hopkins University.  Peck, one of the founding members, invited John Middaugh to join him at the dedication ceremony.  It was quite a thrill and privilege to sit with Peck during the dinner, inaugural ceremonies, and watch the All Star game.

Lacrosse would not have developed at Wooster without Peck Auer.  Peck passed away in 1981 at an age of 79.  His commitment to the game and his belief in our rag-tag club enabled the team to succeed.  The first team picture was published in the 1968 College of Wooster yearbook, and the original MVP Award plaque is in the showcase in the Wooster gymnasium.