It’s easy to look at the paths of Anderson, Crawford and Darden and immediately be drawn into each man's journey to Hobart. None had their sights set on the small college in Geneva, N.Y., before chance meetings with Urick.
Anderson was a Ward Melville (N.Y.) High School star whose four-goal performance in 1983 helped the Patriots clinch their second consecutive Long Island championship. Urick showed up to Ward Melville unannounced prior to the county championship game that year to make a 20-minute pitch on Hobart, encouraging Anderson to make a campus visit.
Anderson was saddened that his childhood dream schools, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina, overlooked him. Anderson’s first choice was Cornell due to its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences because of his hopes of pursuing medical school.
“As it turns out, the person who gave me my first lacrosse stick [Coach Bob Hoppey], his son [Tim] was a Hobart graduate [in 1981],” Anderson said on the Fred Opie Show. “He was right down the street from me, and until this day, I have a feeling that somehow either Timmy or his dad told Coach Urick that I had nowhere to go.”
Anderson’s visit to Hobart erased all his doubts about whether he was worthy of playing collegiately.
“[Urick] was a masterful recruiter,” Anderson said. “I knew their campus was alive and buzzing. Everyone was around and it was a beautiful day.
“As soon as I stepped foot on campus, my mom looked at me and said, ‘This is where you’re going to go, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Mom I can’t say no. This is heaven.’”
Crawford earned his fame as a three-sport star at Manhasset (N.Y.) High School while balancing his lineman and fullback duties in football with his all-county wrestling and lacrosse performances. By his senior year, Crawford was team captain for all three teams.
Crawford practiced the art of faceoffs with assistant coach Harry Baugher. Because of his faceoff prowess, he received scholarship offers from powerhouse programs like Cornell, Hofstra, Navy, Princeton, Rutgers and Washington and Lee. Crawford spent 1982 at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School.
Army was Crawford’s first choice. He received an appointment there and played briefly in 1983. Hall of Fame coach Dick Edell described his former pupil as “the hardest working player both on the field and that he ever coached.”
Crawford’s faceoff expertise aided the Black Knights to an 11-2 record and an NCAA quarterfinal appearance against North Carolina. Unfortunately, Crawford struggled with writing in-class essays, which led to him being placed on a trimester-long academic probation.
Returning home for a year, Crawford balanced night classes at Nassau Community College while working a full-time job during the day. After improving his grades, he reapplied to Army and was readmitted.
But a lengthy conversation with a West Point assistant coach changed his trajectory forever.
“He suggested that I look at a couple schools. One of the schools happened to be Hobart College,” Crawford said. “Then, I’m meeting Coach Urick at an event at Nassau where a bunch of college coaches were coming down. I had an appointment with Coach Urick, and from that point on, I was a Statesman.”
Crawford conditioned himself by playing for Hobart’s football team in the fall of 1984 before making his lacrosse debut in the spring.
Urick relied heavily on Crawford, as he served as Hobart’s primary faceoff midfielder. Crawford had broad shoulders and an immovable physique that helped him dominate ground ball scrums after the faceoff.
During a 1985 practice, Urick coined a term that would become popular generations later, as he instructed Crawford to “faceoff and get off.” FOGO became vernacular for faceoff specialists.
Crawford’s dominance was a catalyst to Hobart’s potent offense. In 1986, he won 177 faceoffs (nearly 67 percent). In 1987, Crawford was a team captain and won 121 faceoffs (nearly 70 percent) with 78 ground balls.
Darden’s three-sport stardom at Glenelg (Md.) High School earned him All-Met honors in football, a Maryland-wide fourth place ranking in track and field and the 1983 Howard County Player of the Year award in lacrosse — a sport he didn’t play until he was a freshman.
Because of its proximity to his birthplace of Annapolis, Navy was Darden’s first choice. One of Darden’s uncles attended the academy and another uncle who worked there gave him his first lacrosse stick.
Darden also was interested in converting his fandom of North Carolina into a possible opportunity after following closely the Tar Heels’ back-to-back national championships in 1981 and 1982. He also received offers from Ohio Wesleyan and Western Maryland (now McDaniel).
But during his senior year, Darden’s outlook changed after being invited to Hobart’s historic 1983 game against North Carolina. The Statesmen’s 12-9 upset snapped UNC’s 29-game winning streak, which spanned both championship runs.
“I had never heard of Hobart College, but I saw this Black guy [Tim Clark] out on the field jacking people up,” Darden said. “I was like, ‘Hey, where is this school?’”
Darden patiently waited to converse with then-North Carolina coach Willie Scroggs after the upset, but Scroggs’ postgame scolding of the team took precedence over his appointment with Darden. During Scroggs’ absence, Hobart’s locker room door opened. Urick checked in with Darden and invited him to meet the team and Clark specifically.
“You’re going to be a while,” Urick said to Darden.
Clark’s recruiting pitch successfully led to Darden’s locker room introduction to the squad.
“I talked to Coach Urick for about 5 or 10 minutes and the following week, we were in the Dome watching Hobart play Boston College and Syracuse play Navy,” Darden said. “I’m sitting there, and he goes, ‘We play here once every other year.’
“He was a great recruiter, and I was right in.”