By Michael Bamberger, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A Philadelphia sports team has won a national title.
In a game that featured sneakers tossed on the field by disgruntled fans, the performance of an Elvis impersonator between quarters, and gritty, selfless play by the victors, the Philadelphia Wings yesterday defeated their bitter archrivals, the Buffalo Bandits, 26-15, in the championship game of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League.
The victory will enrich each of the 17 Wings by $400, and that no doubt is important to them, but it will also allow the team to bring back to Philadelphia the MILL Trophy.
The Wings won the trophy for the first time in 1989, then won it again in 1990. But they had lost to the Bandits in the championship game the last two seasons and were out for revenge.
“We wanted to win last year,” said Paul Gait, who was named the game’s most valuable player. “We needed to win this year.”
Gait, who had eight goals and three assists, is one of the few native Canadians on the Wings, while most of the Bandits are Canadian-born. He described the spirited game as a contest between a Canadian all-star lacrosse team and an American all-star lacrosse team.
The final score was stunning, given how closely the two teams played through the first two quarters. At the end of the first half, the game was tied, 10-10.
During the brief halftime, the Wings filed into their cramped changing quarters and remembered the words written on a chalkboard: Whatever it takes.
OFFENSE COMES ALIVE
When they came out, their offense went berserk, scoring six goals in eight shots in one stretch while amassing an 18-12 lead.
After the game, the jubilant Wings – teachers and salesmen and computer programmers by day – barreled into the changing room, ignored their bloody faces and their knee burns, and had a party. An ESPN camera came in to witness the spraying of champagne and the eating of soggy pizza.
Somebody told Russ Cline, the league’s chief operating officer, that the president was on the phone.
“Yeah, right,” he said.
This is not a league that takes itself too seriously.
But it is catching on. On a blustery and cold day, scalpers worked the streets outside the old downtown hockey hall, Memorial Auditorium, asking $25 for $17 seats and not apologizing for the mark-up. “Hey, it’s sold-out,” one said.
Inside, the Aud’s 16,284 seats were nearly full a half-hour prior to the opening faceoff. To set the appropriate mood, the house lights were dimmed and the powerful beams of yellow and blue spotlights came up, dancing through the stands. Smoke spewed forth from dangling pipes and the sparks of modest fireworks fell from the rafters. Fans shrieked and you half-expected an Aerosmith concert to break out.
Instead, the players were introduced. Andy Piazza, the Wings’ backup goalie, was the first man out, stumbling in the darkness, finding his feet amid lusty cheers. Tough crowd, here in Buffalo.
ON TO THE GAME
Then, the Bandits were introduced, as the public address announcer asked the crowd to “give it up” for goalie Bill Gerrie and forward Stu Aird, among others. Two hundred souls sitting near the rafters sat on their hands. They were Philadelphians, who had made the seven-hour drive by bus.
One more pregame note: “O, Canada” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” were sung by Rosary Reichart. She had a lovely voice and wore a short skirt. The crowd whistled. Winter in Buffalo is long and not over yet.
Then the game finally began, and through the first half every time there was a Buffalo goal, there was the blowing of an incredibly loud fog horn soon after. And the Bandits were playing catch-up effectively. Buffalo goal, fog horn; Buffalo goal, fog horn; Buffalo goal, fog horn. In victory, Mike French, the Wings’ general manager, was modest. “It’s a funny game,” he said. “Anything can happen.”
He knows there’s no value in riling up the Bandits, and he knows it is not unlikely for these two unofficial all-star teams to meet up in the championship game again next year.
In the meantime, the long off-season of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League has begun. Sometime today, on a commercial flight, the MILL trophy will return to Philadelphia. There will be no speeches on the tarmac. Just a bunch of happy, bruised lacrosse players, with $400 to burn.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, April 17, 1994)