Bucknell Alum's Documentary on Morgan State Lacrosse Debuts Friday on PBS, Special Campus Showing Coming on Apr. 13
April 4, 2008
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Filmmaker and 1997 Bucknell University graduate Luke David will show "The Morgan Lacrosse Story," his new documentary on the first and only college lacrosse team at a historically black institution, at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 13, in the Rooke Chemistry Auditorium at Bucknell. David, who served as lacrosse team captain during his senior year at Bucknell, will hold a question-and-answer session following the film. He will be joined in the post-film discussion by Lloyd Carter, a 1981 Morgan State University graduate and member of the historic team from 1978 to 1980, when the school dropped the program. The film premieres on PBS on Apr. 4 and will air on local PBS stations WVIA and WPSX on Apr. 6. Check local listings for times. Founder of BlaxLax Inc., an organization that uses the game of lacrosse to outreach to inner city youth in Baltimore, Carter also is a fire chief in the city of Baltimore and a member of its emergency response team. The film and talk, which are free to the public, are sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Services, the athletics department, and the men's lacrosse program at Bucknell. "The Morgan Lacrosse Story" documents the rise of Baltimore's Morgan State University lacrosse program in the early 1970s. The film uses the official team sport of Maryland to honor the legacy of a ground-breaking team that would eventually pull off one of the greatest upsets in intercollegiate sports history. In 1975, Morgan defeated Washington and Lee University, the number one lacrosse team in NCAA Division II, which had not lost a regular season or home game in three years. David was inspired to make the documentary after reading Ten Bears, co-written by Chip Silverman, the lacrosse team's coach. "It's rare to get a chance to work on something that you want to be a part of, a legacy worth preserving," said David. "The real hook came once I started meeting the players and realized how compelling they were as individual characters, let alone the civil rights backdrop of what they accomplished," he said.
The events of the team's formation and rise to prominence are re-told by the players themselves, with narration by Wendell Pierce from HBO's "The Wire." "This is a positive story," said David. "So many stories about race relations have a sour ending, but here there's a resolution and a spiritual element. I hope people take the time to watch it, absorb the material and realize that things aren't always as inclusive as we think they are, but with courage, things can be different and better." Jessica Hess, director of Multicultural Students Services at Bucknell, said, "This amazing documentary certainly has a place among the most well done sports stories ever compiled. "The images, narratives and information collected by Luke and his team are truly artistic and poetic, giving a different perception of the game of lacrosse and what it can do across lines of race, class, geography and socioeconomic status. "We are pleased and honored that David and Carter would take the time to share this documentary and their experiences with our community," she said. |
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