Saturday 13 May was a milestone evening for the Melbourne University Lacrosse Club, as around 100 club members, alumni and supporters gathered to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Club at the Ernie Cropley Pavilion.
Established in 1883, the Club has been continuously operating ever since, making it the oldest Lacrosse Club in the country and among the oldest in the world.
Lacrosse has a storied connection to the University, encompassing intervarsity competitions, state leagues and high-performance support.
The celebration was attended by different generations of Lacrosse members. The guest of honour was Ian Marshman AM, who is currently the Chair of the Melbourne University Sport Advisory Board. Ian was a member of the Lacrosse Club while he was a student at the University, received a Blue and captained the Men's team from 1970-1972.
The Club also unveiled plans to establish a Lacrosse Club Foundation Chapter to help foster future generations of Lacrosse players at the University.
Setting the foundations for the future of lacrosse at the University of Melbourne
In addition to celebrating our glorious history, the Committee has been working on a plan for setting Melbourne University Lacrosse Club up for future success.
To this end we are working with the University to provide opportunities to make a donation to support student participation in Lacrosse.
In the short term, tax deductible donations can be made to the University of Melbourne indicating a preference to support student participation in Lacrosse.
Gifts can be made via this link: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/sb6e
Our longer term strategy for supporting Melbourne University Lacrosse – the Melbourne University Sport Foundation
Gifts in support of student participation in lacrosse at the University of Melbourne form part of our strategy to support the long term sustainability of our Club.
Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 in support of student participation in Lacrosse coinciding with our clubs celebrations. If we succeed in doing so, it will enable the Committee to establish a dedicated Melbourne University Lacrosse Sub-Fund of the Melbourne University Sport Foundation – a Trust established by the University of Melbourne for the advancement of sport at the University including individual sports or sporting clubs like ours.
If established, a Sub-Fund would be managed by the University as part of its Long Term Investment Fund with income from the investment made available to Lacrosse to support and sustain our Club.
Information about how gifts to the University are invested and managed can be found here:
We envisage that distributions from a Lacrosse Sub-Fund of the Melbourne University Sport Foundation could be used to promote student participation in lacrosse through projects such as:
- The purchase of equipment that enhances the lacrosse experience for students or lowers the barrier to entry to playing lacrosse;
- Supporting coaching that increases the quality of lacrosse experience the club offers;
- Support for scholarships and or other subsidies that attract and retain high quality student athletes in the club.
We view establishing a Lacrosse Sub-Fund of the Melbourne University Sport Foundation as a key plank on which we could build the longer term sustainability of our Club.
We will need help to achieve this and we’d be really pleased to receive your support. If you are interested in hearing more, the Committee would be delighted to speak with you and explain in further detail how this would be established and supported through the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne University Sport Foundation.