When Tim Sawicki put up a couple of posters around Brock University in 1986 to gauge interest in starting a field lacrosse team, little did he know the influence future Badgers would have on the lacrosse world.
 
"My inspiration for initiating the team came from seeing flyers around campus for new sports teams," said Sawicki, who was a new lecturer in the Faculty of Physical Education at the time. "I recognized students who were friends of my family, sharing a lacrosse history. My family has deep lacrosse ties."
 
The initial players in 1986 included Keith McLeod, Tom Howe, Scott Madole, and current wrestling head coach Marty Calder, all of whom were St. Catharines all-star lacrosse players who attended Brock.
 
They also welcomed Ross Cowie, an all-star goalie from Peterborough.
 
"Our first meeting had a dozen players, and we needed 10 for a team," said Sawicki, who is currently a faculty member at Canisius College in Buffalo. "I stepped back from coaching in the mid-1990s to focus on family. This period was a cherished and rewarding chapter of my life."
 
Before Sawicki stepped down from coaching, he compiled a record of 120-15 during nine seasons with Brock. He guided the Badgers to seven titles, including two appearances in the finals.
 
Almost four decades later, the professional lacrosse world is currently peppered with Brock grads as numerous Badgers alumni are engaged at high levels of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and its teams.
 
Former coach Dan Pilon, who served as the bench boss from 2000-09, said that having so many members of the Brock community speaks to the quality of the Badgers men's lacrosse program.
 
"It's a testament to the quality of people who have come through that program from Day 1 in 1986 to now," said Pilon, who played for Brock from 1996-99. "We've had many people at the administrative level who believed in the program when it was easy not to, including Lorne Adams, Bob Davis, Richard DesChatelets, Chris Critelli, and more. I truly believe it's a validation of the opportunities a successful program can bring to the school."
 
A perennial powerhouse in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA), the Brock men's lacrosse program has captured a total of 19 Baggataway Cup championship titles and has reached the final nine times.
 
Their first championship title dates to 1986, the year the team began. That season, Brock won all six games in its division consisting of Western, McMaster, and Waterloo. They dispatched McMaster in the post-season and overcame defending champion Western in the round robin.
 
Brock defeated Carleton 13-6 in the final.
 
McLeod won the Ontario University Field Lacrosse Association (OUFLA) West Division scoring title with 23 goals and eight assists. He was named the most valuable player in the OUFLA finals.
 
That original team was coached by Sawicki and assistant coach John Mouradian, who has been inducted into five halls of fame, including the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1998), Ithaca College (2000), Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1978 Team Canada team), St. Catharines Sports Hall of Fame (2008), and the NLL Hall of Fame.
 
The squad consisted of McLeod, Calder, Madole, Howe, Brian Lemon, Dan Armstrong, Jeff Pfeifer, Frank di Marcantonio, Ross Cowie, Guy Telesnicki, Jamie Arbour, Glenn Simpson, Rick Wilson, James Tallevi, Paul Miller, and Mike Sawicki.
 
Lemon, who is now the NLL's Executive Vice President of Lacrosse Operations, attended Brock from 1984-88.
 
He played eight years in the NLL for the Baltimore Thunder, Rochester Knighthawks, and Detroit Turbos, with whom he won the Champions' Cup in 1991. He also spent 12 years teaching and coaching high school athletes in Brampton.
 
Lemon, who has worked for the NLL for 19 years, recalled those early days of the Brock program as the beginning of something great.
 
"There was a very talented group of men playing lacrosse on the team, and I think this was truly the beginning of the traditions that Brock lacrosse has today," he said. "Field lacrosse was very new to the school during my time at Brock. The sport was considered a club team at the university with different regulations on scheduling and other competitive aspects."
 
Those Brock lacrosse teams of the 1980s were successful against other Ontario schools, including spring break trips to North Carolina to play United States club teams.
 
"It has been fun to follow the continued success throughout the years and the growth of the program in CUFLA," said Lemon, who currently resides in Florida. "I have fond memories of my academic times at Brock with phenomenal professors in the Phys Ed Dept and being a member of the lacrosse team, with whom I continue to keep in touch with some of those players today."
 
The program became a force to be reckoned with during the decade of the 1990s. Brock captured a total of nine titles in 10 years.
 
Those Badger teams included three student-athletes who would go on to become head coaches of pro teams: Mike Hasen of the Rochester Knighthawks, Shawn Williams of the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, and Mike Accursi of the Halifax Thunderbirds.
 
Hasen, who was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, won several Mann Cups, which are awarded to the senior men's lacrosse champions of Canada.
 
Hasen competed as a defender in the NLL for 13 years, winning several Champions Cups both as an athlete and head coach with the Brampton Excelsiors, Peterborough Lakers, and Rochester Knighthawks.
 
Williams is one of the most accomplished players in NLL history. He is the Vegas franchise's first general manager and head coach. He played for 17 seasons in the NLL from 1998-2014 before being inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2021.
 
Accursi (1994-98), Ryan Cousins (2000-03), and Sandy Chapman (2000-04) were nominated to that HoF class.
 
A native of Pelham, Ont, Accursi scored 391 goals and recorded 827 points in 237 games during his 17-year career in the NLL. He helped the Rochester Knighthawks to win three consecutive championships from 2012-14, and he would become the team's head coach in 2020 when the franchise moved to Halifax.
 
Williams and Accursi remained involved with the program by coaching during the early 2000s with Pilon, who spent 12 years with the team as a student-athlete and a coach.
 
Terry Rayner, who was co-captain of the Badgers in the mid-90s, is now the High Performance and National Championship Coordinator with Lacrosse Canada.
 
The NLL also has four officials who are Brock grads and former members of the men's lacrosse team: Blair Ferguson (RLS '01), Matt Robinson (BA '03, MA '06), Kyle Kropman (BKin '14), and Mack Abbott (BA '10, BSM '12).
 
"The school's reputation for excellence in lacrosse has spanned close to 40 years. That's so difficult to maintain," said Pilon, who is the Director of Scouting and video analytics coach for Las Vegas. "Brock is embedded in the Niagara region, which is a hotbed of lacrosse talent, and the school leads the way in program studies such as Sport Management, Physical Education, and Kinesiology. On the field, there's an opportunity to learn so much from coaches and by facing off against the talent on your own team in practice every day."
 
Other Brock grads in the pros include scout Sean Allen (Philadelphia), assistant general manager and assistant coach Clem D'Orazio (Albany), player analyst Jon Sullivan (Halifax), assistant coach Ken Millin (Las Vegas), goalie coach Kurtis Wagar (Las Vegas), and goalie coach Anthony Cosmo (Buffalo), who also played on the Brock men's hockey team for three seasons.
 
Pilon reflected on his time as a Badger with fond memories.
 
"I was lucky enough to experience it not only as a player but for another decade afterward as a coach. Those relationships still resonate today, and the connections we made mattered," he said. "We played hard and valued winning. However, it was never easy. The battles with Guelph, Bishop's, and NCAA teams, and other experiences in the sport as a Badger, hold a special place in my heart."