P

aul Gait solemnly walked away from Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, to debrief Syracuse’s 1987 Final Four loss to Cornell with Roy Simmons Jr. and his twin brother Gary Gait.

He turned to Simmons Jr. and apologized for letting him down. The head coach quickly praised Paul and Gary’s freshman-year efforts to put them at ease. Paul wasn’t the least bit satisfied. Once he locked eyes with Simmons Jr., his intentions were clear.

“Coach, we hope to be with you for the next three years,” Simmons Jr. remembered Paul telling him. “And if we are, you will never lose a national championship the next three years, we will be sure of that.”

He was right. Syracuse won the next three national titles, though the third was vacated by the NCAA. Paul and Gary became the catalysts behind Syracuse lacrosse’s golden era from 1988-90, a span in which the Orange lost just 1-of-43 games. They formed a dynasty, one that can be traced back to Paul’s daring guarantee.

That stretch of dominance marked the early stages of Paul’s journey to becoming one of the most influential lacrosse figures of all time. He averaged nearly four points per game at SU and earned a spot in the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He then totaled 712 points through 13 seasons in the National Lacrosse League and was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2006. Since retiring, he’s served as a revolutionary mind behind modern lacrosse equipment, holding 30 lacrosse-related patents and founding the high-end Gait Lacrosse brand, a company he still runs alongside Gary.

The story of lacrosse can’t be told without Paul. Thirty-four years after his college career, Syracuse is set to immortalize him on April 20, where his No. 19 jersey will forever hang in the JMA Wireless Dome’s rafters.

“Well, it was a great career, a great run,” Paul said. “It was an exceptional life experience as well because of the fact that I went from being a player to working in the industry that I grew up loving.”

Paul Gait holds up the 1990 NCAA Championship trophy in exultation. It was Syracuse’s third straight national title, though the victory was vacated three years later. Daily Orange Archive Photo

Some of the fondest memories from the 57 year old’s life involve how he’s grown lacrosse. He’s always lived an active lifestyle, remaining deeply committed to his aspirations. Though, his intense drive hasn’t come without a cost.

Paul was paralyzed from his T6 vertebrae and below after suffering a 20-foot fall in the Gait Lacrosse warehouse in Altamont, New York, on Nov. 3, 2022. He underwent spinal fusion surgery following the accident. He can no longer walk, and primarily moves by wheelchair.

“Physically, I look like sh*t,” Paul said. “But other than that, I’m fine.”

To any outsider, Paul’s adjustment to paralysis seems damning. He said initially, he would fall over if he sat in a chair without a back. He had no control of his abdomen. He gained some upper-body feeling back four months into the injury, and has a “thin layer” of workable muscles in his back and abs.

He still lives in constant pain. Though one would never know that from hearing him speak.

“Nothing’s changed,” Paul said. “The only break I took was the first three weeks after I fell and the time in the rehab, so a total of six weeks. After that, I went to work every day. And I’ve been working ever since.”

Propped up in his hospital bed, Paul managed Gait Lacrosse’s finances, reviewed and crafted product designs. Yet he admits that since returning home, the hardships are difficult despite having distractions.

His current goals are to rid himself of the unabating pain and to harness enough core strength to perform a sit-up once again. Paul said a singular core workout used to put him in bed for three straight days, but he’s recently seen steady progress after the peak of his paralysis shifted down to the T7 vertebrae.

Paul said he’s on the right path to building back the muscle strength that he lost. He performs two core workouts per week but wishes it were seven, so he can inch closer to that elusive sit-up.

Gary said the hardest part of seeing his brother paralyzed is the pain he goes through. At the same time, he’s thankful that Paul has Gait Lacrosse to fall back on. According to Gary, maintaining a firm grasp over the company has proved necessary in Paul’s recovery.

“He’s not sitting around thinking about it or worrying about it, he’s actually trying to lose his mind in his work to get through each day,” Gary said of Paul.

Two hands and a brain are all Paul needs to fulfill his values. He says that in all aspects of life, he searches for ways to be unique — traits Paul deems necessary for success. The ideology stems from him and Gary’s U12 lacrosse coach, Ron MacNeil, Canada’s all-time leading scorer in box lacrosse history. Paul said MacNeil taught him and his brother how to win by being deceptive and becoming instinctive in their craft.

Twin brothers Paul (right) and Gary Gait pose on their 23rd birthdays during Syracuse men’s lacrosse’s 1990 season. Daily Orange Archive Photo

MacNeil’s advice rapidly became routine for Paul to excel in all of his ventures. Just as he defies the odds by living an unexpectedly active lifestyle while paralyzed, Paul consistently finds ways to stand out.

That starts with size. As prospects, Paul and Gary were much more imposing than typical offensive-based midfielders. Both stood 6-foot-2 and Paul weighed more than 200 pounds. Simmons Jr. didn’t even need to scout the Gait twins in person before offering them scholarships. He received a recommendation from Bob Allan, a former Canadian National Team head coach and friend of Simmons Jr.

Upon seeing them for the first time, the Hall of Fame head coach linked the Gaits to Jim Brown, SU’s all-time great football running back who also played lacrosse at the university from 1955-57.

“The thing that made (Brown) so good at lacrosse was that he was over 225 pounds, could run like the wind and was extremely strong,” Simmons Jr. said. “Paul and Gary had it all. They had the size, the weight, the strength to make you a superior athlete.”

But when the Gaits arrived at Syracuse in January 1987, Paul had a little too much size. He admitted that he celebrated the holidays “quite a bit” and entered his freshman year around 230 pounds. Meanwhile, Gary rigorously trained coming into the program at a lean 195. Naturally, Gary garnered regular playing time to begin his career. Paul did not.

“The coaches looked at me and said, ‘You’re going to play attack because you look big and slow and fat,’” Paul said. “I spent all preseason trying to earn an attack spot. And we weren’t there in the fall, so we didn’t get to earn our spot in the fall like the rest of the team did.”

Paul Gait entered his freshman season without a starting spot in Syracuse’s midfield, but became a staple of its dominant late 1980s squad. Photograph Courtesy of SU Athletics

Paul had to act fast. He got back in shape — around 210 pounds — a week before the season opener. He said he stood out as one of the fastest guys on the team, which prompted a return to the midfield. But he still couldn’t carve out a starting role a week before the season.

It was time for Paul to think like MacNeil: unique and different. To earn more playing time, he dissected how opposing defenses guarded him to figure out the most efficient ways to attack. Paul and Gary always kept their sticks in their left hand, while their teammates switched hands depending on the situation. As a result, Paul said defenders would position on the left side during attacking possessions, not between him and the goal.

Paul and Gary used to laugh about the strategy, questioning why opponents consistently gave him open scoring lanes. In response, Paul practiced beating a defender to their weak side without switching hands. He said it paid dividends.

“Most of our teammates would switch their stick over to the other hand if they wanted to go right,” Paul said, “whereas we kept it in our left hand and just tucked it better than they did and rotated our upper body a little more.”

Paul started to find a rhythm during his brief stints off the bench and said he increasingly earned playing time as the season waned. By postseason play, Paul and Gary were regulars for the Orange. Paul finished his freshman season with the seventh-most goals on the team (11) and three assists.

It was Paul’s only year at Syracuse where he wasn’t a First-Team All-American selection. From there, Paul and Gary solidified themselves as two all-time greats by spurring SU to three consecutive national titles. The only game the Orange lost in that span was their season-opener in 1989 versus Johns Hopkins, where they fell by one.

The Gait-led three-peat stamped Syracuse as one of the most desirable destinations in the country for highly-touted recruits. Just ask the Powell brothers.

Casey, Ryan and Mike Powell all grew up manifesting a future at SU. Casey, a three-time All-American who played at Syracuse from 1995-98, said they all mimicked Paul and Gary’s movements in their backyard. Casey imagined being Gary, Ryan pretended to be Paul and Mike, the youngest, was the opposing goalie.

The Powell brothers all wore the program’s famed No. 22 and combined for 11 All-American selections from 1995-2004, following Paul and Gary’s footsteps as SU’s next great lacrosse family.

“Paul and Gary (Gait) are the reason that the Powell brothers are the Powell brothers,” Casey said. “It was a perfect storm for some young kids who wanted to be great lacrosse players and they inspired us to go to Syracuse and be the best lacrosse players we could be.”

Paul Gait averaged nearly four points per game during his four-year career with the Orange, establishing himself as one of the program’s all-time greats. Daily Orange Archive Photo

In 2001, Paul went from one of Casey’s heroes to his teammate. They shared the field with the Long Island Lizards in Major League Lacrosse’s debut season. Casey was impressed by Paul’s stick work, swagger and communication skills to help teammates adjust on the fly.

That year, the two led the Lizards to the first-ever MLL Championship game. Paul exploded for seven goals on seven shots to carry Long Island to a 15-11 win over the Baltimore Bayhawks. What Casey remembered most, though, was Paul stringing his stick right before the contest.

It was an unusual sight for Casey, yet a common ritual for Paul.

The practice started when the Gaits were 11 and soon became an infatuation, especially for Paul. In high school, he often modified sticks into a customized shape and bent the handles down to offset the stick’s head — before anyone knew what offsetted heads were, Paul said with pride.

Anything Paul can get his hands on, he wants to fix, a trait he said he was born with. When he and Gary were 15, they bought a car together but didn’t drive it until a year later.

“I decided that I needed to take every nut and bolt out of the car and redo it all from the ground up,” Paul said. “So I literally took apart the engine, re-did the engine, took it completely apart and re-did it, took all the suspension out of the car, the interior, the windshields. And then I’d fix it up and put it all back together again.”

Designing and producing lacrosse equipment is how Paul quenched his desire to innovate. At first, he never imagined it’d be a sustainable career until STX Lacrosse offered him and Gary a job out of college as sales representatives. From then on, it became Paul’s mission to improve the sport through modern equipment design.

“The inspirations are the same inspirations (Gary and I) had as players,” Paul said of joining the lacrosse equipment industry. “Make something different, make something unique, do the unexpected, find rules that aren’t written and take advantage of those.”

While he ultimately left STX, Paul said he created “three or four” product designs that were made by the company after he left. He moved to a softball manufacturing company, J.deBeer & Son, and spearheaded a brand-new line of lacrosse equipment. There, he permanently changed the women’s game, inventing a revolutionary lacrosse head that had a pocket in the stick to help players control the ball and release cleaner shots.

Paul was promoted to the company’s president in 2003, the same year he founded Gait Lacrosse — which was originally the men’s lacrosse subsection of J.deBeer & Son. Under Paul’s control, the company became the world’s leader in both women’s gear and Canadian box lacrosse equipment sales.

Though, Gary couldn’t control his laughter when discussing what he considers to be Paul’s most “exciting” contribution to lacrosse: inadvertently producing the modern lacrosse helmet.

Sport Helmet was the largest lacrosse brand when he and Paul lived in Syracuse post-graduation. It used to sell what Gary described as “big bucket helmets.” While Paul visited one of Sport Helmet’s manufacturing warehouses, he took one of its whitewater rafting helmets, stuffed padding inside of it and stuck a facemask on.

The spontaneous creation became Paul’s box lacrosse helmet that summer in Canada.

“It was the funniest looking helmet at the time,” Gait said. “But (Paul) didn’t care.”

Paul thought the helmet was lighter and more comfortable than Sport Helmet’s heftier offerings. Once he arrived back home after the summer, Gary said Paul put a visor on it. Word quickly spread. Soon enough, Sport Helmet developed the modern lacrosse helmet off Paul’s design.

Gary said Sport Helmet eventually changed its branding to Cascade, which sells top-of-the-line lacrosse helmets to this day. And, according to Gary, the name Cascade directly comes from the helmet’s whitewater origins.

“Paul’s an incredible mind and manufacturer and understands how to make everything,” Gary said.

During Paul’s tenure at J.deBeer & Son, he sold the rights of the Gait Lacrosse brand to K2 Sports. Then in 2019, Paul called Gary and told him he could purchase the name back. Paul wanted to re-launch the company with Gary, who joined his brother.

Paul (left) and Gary Gait learned how to string lacrosse sticks when they were 11, and went on to become revolutionary figures in modern lacrosse equipment. Photograph Courtesy of Jennifer Levy | Gait Lacrosse

Ever since, Gait Lacrosse has transformed into the sport’s premier equipment brand. Paul said coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, they became the No. 1 high-end men’s lacrosse sticks company in the world. By the end of 2022, he said it was the No. 1 high-end women’s line too. Paul continues to implore MacNeil’s wisdom, growing the business through doing the unexpected.

“We made every stick unique, and that had a different purpose or suited a different style of play,” Paul said. “And we charged the same price for every stick whereas every other company would have layered prices.”

Today, Gait Lacrosse has six distinct women’s lacrosse heads for athletes to choose from. Paul said that when he or Gary watch girl’s lacrosse nowadays, they feel a special sense of pride that they helped grow the game together.

The impact Paul has had on lacrosse extends far beyond Syracuse. As a pioneer of the sport and one of its most talented players ever, Paul’s name is synonymous with lacrosse. Still, he thinks his jersey retirement at SU is a long time coming.

“It’s special not so much for what has happened recently. But more for what happened in 1993,” Paul said.

In 1993, Syracuse’s 1990 NCAA Championship was vacated. An investigation into the school uncovered that Simmons Jr.’s wife, Nancy, illegally co-signed a car loan for Paul, who said his original vehicle broke down. Paul emphasized that the action wasn’t illegal at the time and that the NCAA changed its bylaws after the fact.

He said it was challenging to deal with the aftermath of the NCAA’s ruling. He believes Syracuse’s 1990 squad is the greatest collegiate team of all time and feels guilty for his teammates and Simmons Jr. that the title victory has an asterisk.

The jersey retirement ceremony on April 20 will be “a small step to healing” the way Paul felt, he said.

Paul’s current concerns may revolve around the growth of Gait Lacrosse and fighting his paralysis. Yet starting Saturday, Paul’s legacy will finally reside where it belongs — with his No. 19 next to Gary’s No. 22 in the venue they used to rule.

“I’m just so excited that his time has finally come,” Gary said of Paul’s jersey retirement. “I thought we both should have been honored together … We wouldn’t have had three national championships at Syracuse if he wasn’t a part of all three of those teams.”

Photograph Courtesy of SU Athletics

Published on April 18, 2024 at 2:35 am

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews