For the first time, an entire Lafayette team — the 1980 women’s lacrosse squad — has been inducted into the Maroon Club Hall of Fame. That team and Stefan Ciosici ’00 (basketball), Doug Elgin ’73 (football), Bob Kessler ’60 (baseball and soccer), and Jen Rothrock ’97 (softball) joined the hall Nov. 18.
The lacrosse team, coached by Sharon Mitchell and captained by Pam MacColl ’80, Cindy Oaks ’80, and Sue Sullivan ’80, won the 1980 U.S. Women’s Lacrosse Association Division II crown with a 7-4 win over top seeded Towson State in the title game. MacColl scored a tournament-best 20 goals to earn all-tournament honors alongside Margarette Hickey ’82. It’s the last Lafayette team to claim a national title.
Ciosici, the Patriot League Player of the Year in 1998, led his team to two regular-season league titles, two league tournament championships, and NCAA tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000. The 6-11 center, the league’s Rookie of the Year in 1996 and tournament MVP in 2000, ranks fifth in career scoring at Lafayette with 1,496 career points and is the Patriot League’s No. 2 all-time rebounder with 831.
Ciosici was selected No. 29 overall in the United States Basketball League draft and appeared with NBA’s Indiana Pacers in the Shaw’s Summer Pro League. He resides in Bradenton, Fla., with his wife, Abby. A substitute teacher in Manatee County, he is pursuing a career as a full-time teacher.
The Leopards’ leader in rushing, with 597 yards, and scoring, including eight touchdowns, in 1971, Elgin was on the team from 1969-72. Since 1988, he has been commissioner of Missouri Valley Conference, the NCAA’s second-oldest Division I league. He holds a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University.
As captain in 1958, Kessler led the soccer team to an 8-1-1 record — the best season mark ever to that point — and was named first-team All-Middle Atlantic Conference, first-team All-New Jersey/Pennsylvania/Delaware, and honorable mention All-East.
During his baseball career, Kessler helped lead the team to a mark of 59-31-1, including a trip to the 1958 College World Series. His career batting average of .396 and slugging percentage of .610 rank No. 2 and 3, respectively, on Lafayette’s all-time list. He was named second-team All-District II as an infielder in 1959 when he batted .419, the fourth-highest season average in Leopard history.
Kessler played professional football for the Providence Steamrollers in 1962, where he was among the first to utilize in-step, “soccer-style” kicking now employed by virtually every NFL kicker. He holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in education from Stanford University. Retired superintendent of Lake Forest Community High School District 115 in Illinois, he resides in New Hampshire with his wife, Susan.
A two-time Patriot League Player of the Year, Rothrock holds the College’s career records for hits, doubles, runs batted in, and runs scored and is second all-time in batting average, home runs, and triples. Her .415 batting average landed her among the NCAA leaders in 1997, earning her second-team All-Mid-Atlantic honors in addition to conference laurels.
A site manager for Good Shepherd in Stroudsburg, Pa., Rothrock holds a master’s degree in physical therapy from MCP Hahnemann University (now Drexel University College of Medicine).