NLL Insider

You remember 1974, right? Yeah, right. Most of you reading this weren’t even born yet, but believe it or not, fellas were playing lacrosse back then.

And get this: They did it without off-set heads, shafts that were made of (gasp!) wood, and shorts so tight that it’s a complete mystery as to how anyone even moved in those things.

With all praise to the internet, we are blessed with this clip of the 1974 Philadelphia Wings, who were led by John Grant Sr. This 20-second video shows Grant Sr. playing against the Rochester Griffins and if you want to know a little more about the NLL back then, click on the “read more” tag after you watch this video.

The original National Lacrosse team featured six teams: the Wings, the Griffins, the Maryland Arrows, the Montreal Quebecois, the Syracuse Stingers and the Toronto Tomahawks.

It was a 40-game season in 1974 and the Griffins beat the Wings, 4 games to 2, for the championship that season. Playing 40 games allows for some sick stats, and Grant Sr. finished with 78 goals and 105 assists for a team-leading 183 points. Playing for Rochester that same season was Rick Dudley, who went on to fame and fortune with the Buffalo Sabres.

If you’re a fan of soccer, you’ll recognize the name Bruce Arena, who played for the Montreal team before he coached the U.S. men’s national soccer team.

A few of the teams shifted for the 1975 season, but the league didn’t last beyond that. Three of the teams went bankrupt, and the Montreal team couldn’t play home games for two months because the Olympics were coming to town in 1976 and the team couldn’t find a place to play.

This concludes class for today. Next week? We’ll take a look at a 1931 game. Yes, 1931.

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