Lacrosse Legends

Dave Evans has made his mark in lacrosse as both a Builder and a Player in both the Box and Field versions of the game, for both the Men’s and the Women’s versions. As a player he was made an all-star and won MVP awards in three seasons in the Junior "A" division, toiling for Burnaby Cablevision.

When he was a Senior he collected top goalie awards in the WLA in 1973. He followed up this achievement with the top goalie award in 1975 in the NLL League. Evans was the WLA playoff MVP in 1973 and 1977. Evans was a four time Maitland Trophy winner in 1973, 1977, 1980 and 1981. He had three All-Star ratings and a Mann Cup ring in 1977.

Evans also represented Canada at the 1974 World Field Lacrosse Championships. The Vancouver Burrards retired his jersey in 1996 and he was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1995. As a coach he had three Canadian Senior Women Box Lacrosse titles and was Head Coach of the BC provincial women's field lacrosse rep team that captured seven Canadian titles.

He was Assistant Coach of the 1982 World Field Lacrosse Champion Bronze Medalists Canadian National Women's Field lacrosse team, and became Head Coach of the fourth place finishing team in 1989.

He was named 1987 WLA Coach of the Year for the Vancouver Burrards and was Head Coach of the MILL Philadelphia Wings winning two league titles and being named the 1992 Coach of the Year. He coached in the NLL in 2007 with the Washington/Vancouver Stealth.

Dave also served the Burrards as general manager between 1983 and 1986, winning the WLA Executive of the Year Award in 1985. On a final note the BCLA named him Referee-of-the-Year in 1973.

Dave White is known as one of the great high school lacrosse coaches of all time. He ran the program at Salmon River Central School for 33 years. The school is located in Fort Covington, New York – near the Akwesasne Territory. White was presented the Gerald J. Carroll Jr. Exemplary Coaching Award for his efforts.

White left Akwesasne to attend Mount Herman Prep School from 1966-1970 as a student-lacrosse player. His play and academic record lead to a scholarship to the Ivy League Brown University. He excelled in Lacrosse and played in the 1975 North-South Game where he scored the winning goal in overtime in the 25-24 thriller.

He would be chosen as a member of the Can-Am Native team that played in the 1980 Nations Cup – the first world box lacrosse championship.

Tim Murdoch has been a long-time resident of Montreal, having his start in Princeton, New Jersey. He volunteered for 17 seasons as the head coach of McGill men’s varsity lacrosse team from 2003 to 2019, finishing with a career record of 191-88-2 in 281 contests for an overall winning percentage of .684.

He guided the program to nine CUFLA East pennants (2007, 2011-2017, 2019), four undefeated regular seasons (2013-2015, 2019) and two national championships, claiming the league's Baggataway Cup in 2012 and 2015.

In 2018, Murdoch received the Honora Shaughnessy Ambassador Award, presented to a friend of McGill who has made an exceptional contribution to the University as a role model in fostering loyalty, professionalism and team spirit.

Murdoch played a leadership role in establishing the Canadian Lacrosse Foundation McGill Indigenous Lacrosse Scholarship for student-athletes. In 2019, the “Tim Murdoch Fund” was established to memorialize Murdoch’s coaching career at McGill.

Murdoch has contributed much to the growth of the game in the city. He founded the Westmount Lynx youth field lacrosse program with the city of Westmount in 2006, served as head coach of the Quebec under-19 squad at the 2013 national championship for the First Nations Trophy, and sat on the advisory board of Canada’s 150th Celebration of Lacrosse at McGill (June 2017).

In 2007, he and his McGill assistants were voted CUFLA coaching staff of the year. Under Murdoch's guidance, the team has received the Harry Griffiths Trophy four times (2008, 2009, 2012, 2015) as the most outstanding sports club at McGill.

Carol Patterson is one of the most important women in building international lacrosse and helping to launch Canada’s involvement with the women’s field game.

Her lacrosse resume includes a career filled with coaching, officiating and administration. She has coached lacrosse in Baltimore County, New York State, at SUNY Buffalo and Niagara University.

As an administrator she served as a Director on the board of the Iroquois Nationals.

She was active in the family business Tuskewe Krafts – a wooden lacrosse stick manufacturer - with her husband John Wesley Patterson.

Their sticks were distributed worldwide and coveted by female lacrosse players.

They set up a Canadian company as well called Canam Lacrosse Ltd. Carol Patterson ran the Niagara Girls Lacrosse Camp as well.

Patterson wrote the US Lacrosse PE Curriculum for grades 4-12 in 2006 and was involved in CD Rom and Course development for the Canadian Lacrosse Association.

Some of her accolades include induction into the Western New York Lacrosse Hall of Fame, earned the Canadian Lacrosse Association Certificate of Merit, and the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Association Recognition Award.

The OUA Women’s Lacrosse Champions are awarded the Patterson Cup each year.

Dan Wilson was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in the Class of 2011.

This Junior A lacrosse star played for the famed Burnaby Cablevision in the late 70’s, winning two Minto Cups in 1976 and 1977.

A perennial Junior A all-star, Wilson ended the 1977 campaign as league leading scorer with 196 points in just 28 games. Dan parlayed his talents in field lacrosse and was a member of the 1978 Team Canada squad.

In nine Western Lacrosse Association seasons for the Adanacs, Bellies and Burrards, he was selected as an all-star on three occasions from 1979 to 1982.

He took WLA Rookie of the Year honours in 1979 while amassing 121 points.

Wilson led the Adanacs Nations in the ’80 Nations Cup Box Lacrosse Championship team while being named tournament MVP. Wilson led the team with 12 goals and 18 assists in five games.

In 205 WLA regular season and playoff games, Wilson scored 238 goals and 386 assists for 624 points. Wilson won one Mann Cup ring in 1985 with New Westminster.

Dan Wilson was also a member of the Team Canada Field Lacrosse Team in 1978 - a team, that in one of the greatest comebacks ever in international lacrosse competition - won the 1978 World Championship with a 17-16 double overtime victory over a stunned U.S. team after losing to that team in round robin play by a score of 28 -4

Dave Arsenault was introduced to lacrosse at the 1969 Canada Summer Games held in Halifax when he was 14 years old.

He would play for Dartmouth, Shearwater, and Sackville for a year of Junior.

His legacy to the game is that of a builder and this started at age 17 when he was asked to coach and referee.

He moved to New Brunswick and went to play for the local Saint John Junior team.

They played teams from Sackville, Caraquet and Charlottetown. Eventually a Maritime Junior Lacrosse League formed.

The legendary Bill McBain became head coach of the New Brunswick Junior team in 1976 and took them to the Founders Cup in Windsor, Ontario later that year.

Another memorable moment occurred when the 1977 Canada Summer Games were held in Newfoundland.

The New Brunswick team went to the Rock a few weeks before the Games to help Team Newfoundland prepare for the competition.

Arsenault kept his playing career going when he played for the first New Brunswick Senior Team in 1978.

That team travelled to the Presidents Cup later that year.

That same year Arsenault and some fellow players started a Youth League in New Brunswick.

The League was incorporated by 1981. Dave Arsenault would become Head Coach of the 1985 Summer Games Team. In 1988, work commitments took him away from the game.

He was able to return to the game in 2001 and worked with Bruce Logan on development.

Arsenault would become Head Coach of Team New Brunswick in 2003. He remained part of the Provincial Team Program for 15 years.

He was made Technical Director for the provincial governing body from 2012-2016. During this time he helped P.E.I. grow the game and began working with New Brunswick First Nations communities.

He also got schools going and new field lacrosse programs were introduced. The Maritime Cup for U15 and U18 Boys Field Lacrosse Teams was created. All of these efforts were recognized with his induction into the Saint John Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 for his work at the local local and provincial levels.

There are certain stories that are legendary in their own right.

They are bigger than a single individual and affect the sport in a major way.

The Nations 80 Cup was an event that laid the groundwork for the direction lacrosse would take in the future.

It featured 5 teams from around the world travelling to British Columbia for the first truly international box lacrosse festival.

Australia, Canada East, Canada West North American Natives and the USA .

It would lay the groundwork for the first FIL sanctioned World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in 2003, and also the beginning of the Iroquois Lacrosse National Team program.

Members of the five teams and knowledgeable spokespeople tell the story from their own unique perspectives.

Join Dave Evans (Australia), Stan Cockerton, Wayne Colley and John Dalgliesh (Canada East )Frank Nielsen, Greg Thomas and Dan Wilson (Canada West), Jeff Gill, Lewis Mitchell and Dave White (North American Natives) and Craig Moore (USA) in a wide-reaching retelling of this major world tournament.

Kerri Hardill received her first lacrosse stick for Christmas when she was 4 years old.

She remembers attending the lacrosse school for girls in Peterborough at age 11 and at 12 years old (1974) the first girls teams started in Lakefield and Peterborough.

In 1975 -76 she played on the bantam boys team in Bridgenorth as well as on the girls team. When she was in Grade 11-13 she was invited to play on the high school boys field team by Coach Don Barrie.

In 1978 she received an invitation to try out for a women’s field team started by Paul and Stan Gilkinson. This was the start of women’s field lacrosse in Ontario and Canada.

This lead to a tryout in 1981 for Team Canada which would participate in the inaugural women’s World Cup in Nottingham England in 1982.

Kerri was a member of the Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse Team from 1983-1994. Her
team won many Bronze and Silver medals at the National Championships, finally getting Gold in 1994.

Hardill was involved with Team Canada from 1982 – 1994 winning Bronze at the World
Cup 1982 and 4 th Place at World Cup. 1993. As a coach she started the inaugural girls field
program in Peterborough under the PMLA umbrella and the girls field program at the high
school she taught at.

She coached Club and High School for 20 years.She also served as an
Organizing Committee Member for the three world championships held in Canada (2007, 2013, 2019).

For all of these achievements Hardill received these accolades – inducted into the
Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame as a Player in 2000, the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a player in 2001, and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as the first female player to be inducted in 2007.

Windsor’s Miro “Medo” Martinello is a builder of the game and was recognized for this through his induction into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2005.

Medo attained tremendous success as a Player, Coach and Ambassador for Canadian lacrosse for over 55 years.

As a Player he learned from Jim Bishop in the 1968 Professional League and Bishop called him one of “...the top 5 players he had ever had the pleasure to coach”.

He is known for his innovative coaching ideas at the professional level including positions in
Syracuse, Quebec and Detroit.

His coaching acumen was recognized when he received the Professional League Coach of the Year Award in 1975 with Quebec City and in 1991 with the Detroit Turbos.

He coached the Windsor Junior team to Eastern Canadian Championships in 1972 and 1973
Medo has received national and local recognition for his involvement in lacrosse and was the recipient of the Canadian Government 125th Medal of Confederation for Outstanding
Achievement in 1992.

He will forever be known as one of the most innovative coaches of his era.

Bruce Logan was nominated and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for
volunteer activities with The CLA and Lacrosse New Brunswick in 2012.

The beginning was in 1969. He and his friends used Javex bottles with the face cut out and screwed to broom handles as lacrosse sticks. His father brought in real sticks from Ontario soon after for the kids to use.

New Brunswick lacrosse took off after that.

In 1972 a Pee Wee Team was developed in Saint John to play against a Nepean Team that was
stopping off in Saint John .This was the first time the game was played competitively in Bruce’s
area.

From 1974- 1979 Logan played in The Maritime Junior Circuit for Saint John, New Brunswick.
New Brunswick teams included Saint John, Sackville , Fredericton, Caraquet, as well as
Charlottetown PEI, Halifax and Dartmouth , Nova Scotia.

During that time he played for Team New Brunswick at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He went on to play for the Provincial Team at the Founders Cup Tournaments in Sarnia and Montreal from 1978-1980.

On the administrative side of the game, Logan chaired the Lacrosse Sector for the Saint John
Canada Games from 1984-5.

He oversaw the equipment, officials, security, media and disciplinary committees as well as all onsite activities during the event. It would be the last Canada Games that lacrosse was played in until the upcoming Canada Games in Niagara in 2022.

Other highlights include Bruce Logan being part of the organizing committee for The Fundy
Lacrosse Association (650 players in year one), President of Fundy Lacrosse Association for five
years, President of Lacrosse New Brunswick for 9 years, and served as a director on the CLA
board for 8 years where he volunteered for several committees.

He also was Head Coach for the New Brunswick Bantam Girls Team which played in the
inaugural Bantam Girls National Championships in Whitby Ont. He coached Tyke through
Bantam for approx. 10 years. To round things out Logan refereed hundreds of minor league
games.

He was rewarded for his efforts with the 2006-2007 Sport New Brunswick Volunteer Sport
Administrator of the Year Award . Bruce Logan is one of the most notable Maritime builders.