Jim Love writes:
 
>Much of the same attributes that attract me to collegiate hockey apply
equally well to
>lacrosse: fast, relatively non-stop action; rugged athleticism [a hoary
>euphemism for controlled violence :-)]; super-skilled individual talents
>blending into a tempo-setting "team" attack, etc., etc.
 
Jim, one more observation along the same lines I made in my undergrad days:
 
 A lot of hockey players also played lacrosse, and at the end of the hockey
season it was not unusual for two teams that had faced each other two weeks
ago in hockey now squared off in lacrosse, often with the same players
facing each other.  One big difference though was that a standard defensive
move in lacrosse, using the stick to "spear" an opposing forward repeatedly
to keep him away from the goal mouth was accepted as just that - routine.
In hockey, the same move by the same players would have produced a
bench-clearing brawl in the early 70s.  I understand that a "spear" from a
lacrosse stick is going to hurt a lot less than the pointed toe of a hockey
stick; nonetheless, it was what was expected in the " rugged athleticism"
of each sport that made it acceptable in one sport and completely beyond
the pale in the other.
 
Craig Knowles
UNH  '71
 
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