In We Showed Baltimore, Christian Swezey tells the dramatic story of how a brash coach from Long Island and a group of players unlike any in the sport helped unseat lacrosse's establishment.

From 1976 to 1978, the Cornell men's lacrosse team went on a tear. Winning two national championships and posting an overall record of 42–1, the Big Red, coached by Richie Moran, were the class of the NCAA game. Swezey tells the story of the rise of this dominant lacrosse program and reveals how Cornell's success coincided with and sometimes fueled radical changes in what was once a minor prep school game centered in the Baltimore suburbs.

Led on the field by the likes of Mike French and Eamon McEneaney, in the mid-1970s Cornell was an offensive powerhouse. Moran coached the players to be in fast, constant movement. That technique, paired with the advent of synthetic stick heads and the introduction of artificial turf fields, made the Cornell offensive game swift and lethal. It is no surprise that the first NCAA championship game covered by ABC Television was Cornell vs. Maryland in 1976. The 16–13 Cornell win, in overtime, was exactly the exciting game that Moran encouraged and that newcomers to the sport wanted to see.

Swezey recounts Cornell's dramatic games against traditional powers such as Maryland, Navy, and Johns Hopkins, and gets into the strategy and psychology that Moran brought to the team. We Showed Baltimore describes how the game of lacrosse was changing—its style of play, equipment, demographics, and geography. Pulling from interviews with more than ninety former coaches and players from Cornell and its rivals, We Showed Baltimore paints a vivid picture of lacrosse in the 1970s and how Moran and the Big Red helped create the game of today.

Christian Swezey is Producer for EWTN News Nightly. He has covered lacrosse since 1991, including twenty years with the Washington Post and Inside Lacrosse.

[We Showed Baltimore] is by any measure a must-read for all Cornell — make that all college — lacrosse fans.

John Feinstein, author of The Back Roads to March:

Christian Swezey's passion for the sport of lacrosse is immense, and his understanding of the game's history is apparent on every page of We Showed Baltimore. If you love lacrosse, you'll love this book. If you don't love lacrosse, you'll still find it fascinating.

Mike French, three-time all-American attackman and captain of Cornell's 1976 championship team:

In We Showed Baltimore, Swezey vividly captures the essence of lacrosse in the 1970s. His sense of character and his knack for story are superb. Reading these pages, I relived my ride to the top of the game with Coach Moran.

Joe Finn, Archivist at USA Lacrosse, National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum:

With a sports writer's deft touch, Swezey tells the remarkable story of how lacrosse changed in the 1970s. We Showed Baltimore is sports writing at its best—a compelling narrative that highlights the personal stories of perseverance, failure, and triumphant success that make the games so meaningful.

Quint Kessenich, all-American goalie, member of Johns Hopkins's 1987 national championship team, and Sportscaster for ESPN:

Swezey shares the compelling stories of the changing lacrosse landscape as Cornell navigated its way up the food chain under its team's supremely competitive coach Richie Moran.

John Jiloty, author of Undefeated:

There's no better historian of lacrosse than Swezey. The hours and of hours of archived game film and numerous interviews with key coaches and players that inform We Showed Baltimore allow him to recreate the era and bring the fabled Cornell, Hopkins, Maryland, Virginia, Navy, and Army teams to life on the page.