I had the good fortune Saturday night to be invited to the St. Paul's Inaugural Sports Hall of Fame banquet and ceremony. It was a first-class affair held on the Brooklandville, Maryland campus. The event had a personal importance to me but as a lacrosse fan, it was a who's who of the sport.

In attendance were Towson's Tony Seaman, Boston Cannons star Conor Gill, UVa. legend Doug Knight and plenty more. I saw Buzzy Budnitz and Fred Eisenbrandt, both Howdy Myers award recipients. Coincidentally, Howdy Meyers was one of the folks inducted Saturday into the St. Paul's Hall of Fame.

The list of initial inductees is an amazing ride through the history of lacrosse. Myers, deceased, who coached at Hopkins and Hofstra is joined by Ace Adams ('46), the long-time Virginia coach, Navy star Jimmy Lewis ('54), Maryland stars Dick Britt ('52) and Curtis Rountree ('79), Princeton greats "Wick" Sollers ('73) and Scott Bacigalupo ('90), W&L stars Bob Clements ('76) and Edgar Boyd ('36) and University of Baltimore (yes, they played lacrosse) legend Randy Walker.

Hopkins has had a "pipeline" from St. Paul's for quite a while with Ray Greene ('41), Bob Sandell ('45), Skip Darrell ('60) and Les Matthews ('69), followed by Don Zimmerman ('71), the current coach at UMBC. In the 80's, Larry LeDoyen ('82), Mike Morrill ('84) and Steve Mitchell ('83) helped the Hop to some more rings. Mitchell is the son of another Hopkins star inducted tonight, George Mitchell ('44).

Perhaps the most famous to the hardcore lacrosse enthusiasts in this class is Hopkins great "Jerry" Schmidt ('58), who was on the famous Sports Illustrated cover with his wooden lacrosse stick. As the coach at Hobart, Princeton and Calvert Hall, Schmidt was the mentor to a whole line of legendary lacrosse coaches nationwide.

UNC stars Billy Ness (’79) and Steve Stenersen (’78) were honored. Stenersen is the executive director of U.S. Lacrosse. Both won championships at North Carolina. Virginia stars Michael Watson (’93), Timmy Whiteley (’92), Punch Peterson ('57), Bill Hooper ('47) and Peter Sheehan (‘83) were inducted.

The standing ovation of the night went to longtime lacrosse coach George Mitchell.

Charles Compton ('46), Jamie Andrew, a stellar middle school coach, Mitch Tullai, the legendary football coach, were also inducted along with Zeke Marshall ('90), the only athlete in the initial Hall of Fame class to not play lacrosse.