Two Syracuse lacrosse legends are standing together in Onondaga Arena watching younger men play the sport they love.

Through the glass, Oren Lyons surveys the field from behind the goal. For Lyons, the goaltender on the undefeated 1957 Syracuse lacrosse team, it’s his favorite view of the field.

He leans over to his old friend and teammate, Jim Brown.

“When we were playing for Syracuse, did you ever imagine what you see today?”

“No, man,” Brown said. “How the hell could you imagine?”

Lyons meant he never would’ve foreseen a World Indoor Lacrosse Championship tournament in Onondaga Nation, much less the game he was watching now between the two unlikely box lacrosse countries of Israel and Serbia.

That game began the fourth-ever WILC. Nine hours later, Lyons and Brown, along with former Vice President Al Gore, attended the Opening Ceremonies. Lyons, the namesake of Oren Lyons Hall on the Syracuse University campus, is a Faithkeeper and a Chief of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs, as well as the instrumental piece in bringing the WILC to central New York. The 13-team tournament culminates in the bronze and gold medal games on Sept. 27 at the Carrier Dome.

“(The tournament) wouldn’t be happening without Chief Lyons’ leadership,” said Kevin Quinn, SU’s senior vice president for public affairs. “He’s been thinking about this for several years. Most likely longer than that.”

 

Lyons fell in love with lacrosse during the Great Depression as a 5-year-old sitting on rickety wooden benches in the back of a baker’s truck among his father’s teammates, burly men in big, black overcoats. The Syracuse Red Devils lacrosse team shuttled around central New York in a loop to play league games in Geneva, Auburn, Rochester and Buffalo.

At 15, Lyons made the Onondaga men’s lacrosse team, which meant he played goalie for scrimmages against SU. In 1949, the Onondaga team asked SU lacrosse coach Roy Simmons to speak at its annual banquet.

“Simmie — old man Roy Simmons — … said something I’ll always remember,” Lyons said. “He said, ‘If it wasn’t for Onondaga and Six Nations playing lacrosse during the war years, when everybody dropped it and went to war … We might’ve lost this sport altogether.”

Simmons later recruited Lyons to Syracuse, where he became an All-American. Lyons became a professor of American Indian studies at the University at Buffalo, founded councils for furthering modern Native American culture and created a group for all indigenous peoples at the United Nations.

“Oren promotes our sovereign identity through lacrosse,” said Neal Powless, who sat at the dinner table as a boy, listening to Lyons and Powless’ father, the Chief, discuss how to advocate for the Iroquois. “One of his visions was to spread our message through the Iroquois Nationals.”

 

Lyons sits on a purple picnic table underneath a white pine tree. The tree represents the Great Tree of Peace to Iroquois people. They call their chiefs “Pine Trees.” Lyons is one. As a leader, he wanted to give his people something. He wanted lacrosse.

He called Stan Cockerton, president of the Federation of International Lacrosse, and told him the 2015 WILC should be played in Onondaga Nation. It had previously been played twice in Canada and once in the Czech Republic. Lyons remembered his conversation with Cockerton going something like this:

“I want to do it here.”

“Can you manage it?”

“Yeah.”

“It wasn’t too complicated,” Lyons said. “Not too many people are playing box (lacrosse). They would’ve had (the WILC) here or back in Canada.”

Onondaga Nation hired Erick Weiss as the executive producer. He designed the village, marketed the event and managed public relations. He directs the “spitball estimate” of 500 employees and volunteers who have worked every night of the 10-day event.

The WILC slogan, written on all the purple banners, reads, “Lacrosse is coming home.”

But it almost didn’t.

The finals were scheduled to be played in Buffalo at the First Niagara Center after the round-robin games on Onondaga Nation. But Weiss thought playing the finals nearly 160 miles away from the rest of the tournament wouldn’t draw a crowd like having the entire tournament in one area would.

Weiss met with Pete Sala, then-interim director of athletics at SU. The two walked around the Carrier Dome. The same day in November 2014, Sala drove to Onondaga Nation, met with the leadership group and agreed to host the finals in the Dome. As a result, Weiss said the economic impact on central New York as a whole should tally between $4-6 million.

For the tournament — which is the first international sporting event held on indigenous lands — Onondaga Nation built a $6.5 million, wood-and-stone arena and invested another $4.2 million. Despite sponsors like Nike and the Bill Belichick Foundation, an active vendor scene near the stadiums and increased foot-traffic on Onondaga Nation, Lyons doesn’t envision recouping the money spent.

An eagle screeches overhead and interrupts Lyons. He sips coffee, surveying the food vendors, the white tents and the large crowd milling around. He sees people in jerseys from all over the world, including Israel and Serbia, and the smiling faces of new and old box lacrosse fans.

A sudden stiff, cold wind reminds Lyons that Onondaga Nation is getting closer to the harvest. All the hard work from planting season will pay off in a big festival. But it’s not time yet.

Right now, it’s still growing season.

Published on September 23, 2015 at 10:53 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR