The City of St. Catharines and the sport of lacrosse have a relationship going back more than a century.
Not only is the Garden City home to the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, it’s also home to the most successful university lacrosse program in Canada.
The Brock Badgers have won 18 Baggataway Cup national titles in the 31-year history of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association, and they’ll look to extend that number on home turf as Brock hosts the national championship this weekend.
Joining Brock in the three-day tournament being held on Alumni Field will be Ottawa, Guelph, Bishop’s, Trent and Western.
The Badgers’ first game of the CUFLA championships will be Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. when they host Ottawa in the quarter-finals. Games will continue through to the gold medal match Sunday at 1 p.m.
Weekend passes are $25 and individual game tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students. Throughout the weekend there will be food trucks on site and a licensed area. Games will also be streamed online at brocktv.ca.
In addition to the games themselves, a focus of the weekend will be on St. Catharines’ place in the history of lacrosse in Canada, and on display will be a certificate from the 1908 Olympic Gold Medal win by St. Catharines native Frank Dixon.
Born in 1878, Dixon is considered one of the Top 50 lacrosse players of all time, and in 1908 – the last year men’s lacrosse was a full sport in the Olympics – he helped Canada win gold.
Dixon’s grandson Mike Dixon, a Brock University alumni, now has the Olympic gold medal while Brock Board of Trustees member Gary Comerford, Mike Dixon’s brother-in-law, has the certificate handed out with the gold medal in 1908.
Also being recognized this weekend will be some of the successful Brock lacrosse graduates. Since it’s inception, the program has sent 40 players and five coaches to the National Lacrosse League.
Brock will unveil a special plaque in Walker Complex recognizing the program and its exceptional alumni, including Shawn Williams, one of the top players in lacrosse over the past two decades.
Williams, who will be at the championships this weekend, is the all-time leading scorer for the Badgers. In his five seasons, Williams was a five-time team MVP, four-time Baggataway Cup champion as a player and two-time Baggataway Cup champion as a coach. Like Frank Dixon, Williams represented Canada on the world stage winning three World Championships during his career. He is the only CUFLA player to be honoured by a university’s Sports Hall of Fame.
For more information on the 2016 CUFLA Baggataway Cup, visit gobadgers.ca or cufla.ca
