The year is 2025. Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse is as entrenched in the Rochester community as any other professional sport in the Flower City.
The game itself, often referred to as the ultimate medicine game, has held roots in the Greater Rochester Area for many, many years, but professional box lacrosse was a foreign concept. That was until 1995, when a team, wearing what would become its signature purple and teal colors, ran onto the floor at Blue Cross Arena.
“Rochester has always had a great lacrosse hotbed,” said Jody Gage, who served as general manager for the team following a Hall of Fame playing career with the Rochester Americans, along with serving in various front office roles for the organization. “At the time, it was more just on the east side. The west side didn’t even play lacrosse. And now when you look at the west side, you know that high school number one scholarship for high school students is girls’ lacrosse. What I take pride in most with the ‘Hawks over the years is how we helped grow lacrosse around the city and specifically to the west side.”
The original Knighthawks helped forge a future for the sport in Rochester, but it was aided by a successful start. Steve Donner, who owned the team and brought it to Rochester, inherited a group of players who from the start would make an impact. Names like Paul Gait, Regy Thorpe, Chris Driscoll, along with goaltender Steve Dietrich, helped guide Rochester’s inaugural year to a 4-4 regular season finish. The team would go on to surprise the Boston Blazers in the playoff semifinals, punching their ticket to the league finals as an expansion team. While the team fell one goal shy of a championship, dropping an overtime final to Philadelphia, the standard was set, and the sky was the limit for Rochester’s newest tenant.
“Those guys are the founding fathers of Knighthawks lacrosse,” said longtime voice of the Knighthawks, Craig Rybczynski. “Not only did they help the Knighthawks kind of plant roots in the city, but they also helped start the explosion of box lacrosse and the creation of more opportunities for kids to play lacrosse. There were hotbeds in Rochester, but after the Knighthawks were founded in 1995, you saw more and more kids starting to play the game.”
It would take just three seasons for the Knighthawks to reach the summit of the NLL, becoming league champions in 1997. The team would win three divisional titles in the 90’s, while making the playoffs each year from 1995-99, and furthermore, the first 13 years of the franchises’ existence.
“I think throughout the 90’s in those early years we had a really good group of guys that cared about each other,” said Fairport native Tim Soudan, who played forward in Rochester from 1995-2005. “That room was good. And you know, it didn’t always translate during the regular season, but it was a war out there every week. It was incredible. It’s not easy to win one of those championships and the fact that we went in ‘95 and won it ‘97 and then lost in the championship again in ’99 was a really good run.”
The players made up the talent on the team, but the fans brought the energy that made them perform.
“Playing the music during games made it feel more like it was a party,” said Gage. “It was a party atmosphere. I believe back then the beer sales were like five to one. And then even afterwards we always had postgame parties with the fans and we’d be in these big places where the fans and the players would, you know, intermingle. They were a lot like old time hockey players. The money wasn’t that great, but they were in it for the love of the game.”
It wouldn’t just be postgame parties that the original Knighthawks would feel like members of the city. They were community ambassadors. They were growing the game from the youth on up.
The Rochester Knighthawks of the modern era are not the same franchise from that of the past, but the beliefs and values remain the same: foster a love for the game on the floor that reverberates up through the stands and beyond.
The game of lacrosse has grown in Rochester and its surrounding cities and towns. The Knighthawks are deeply ingrained in that growth; a non-negotiable for the players who wear the military green and black of today’s team. While the colors have changed and the franchise has too, it’s important to remember and acknowledge those who were here before.
“I think the past is always important,” said Gage. “Even when I played pro hockey, it’s the players that you grew up watching who paved the way for you as a future athlete.”
“There are people who still come up to me and say they remember watching us play and went to games 25, 30 years ago,” said Soudan. “I think it’s important to reestablish and thank those people that have been longtime season ticket holders and that have put so much into the team, including their heart. I can walk through the doors of that building and still see ushers and security that recognize me and that’s always nice to see. It brings back good memories every time I’m there.”
