Montclair wound up losing, 9-8, in overtime. Princeton was definitely impressed with coach Gil Gibbs’ Mounties, who had already made their mark landing players in the college ranks.

From Paul Edwards at Johns Hopkins to Brooks Sleeper and, later Hynes at the University of Maryland, the Gibbs’ imprint and influence on spreading Montclair’s influence on a national scale was already in full force.

The now 53-year-old Hynes talks about the realization he had just two years ago when he knew that his lacrosse playing days were over. His knees and Achilles had enough. But there wasn’t even a tinge of regret in his voice. After all, he had - for all intents and purposes - completed a lengthy and satisfying journey from his teen-age days in Montclair to being a box lacrosse player in his 50s in upstate New York.

He had seen and done plenty in terms of playing the game and, like many of his former Montclair teammates, had enjoyed the afterglow and influence of having absorbed plenty from the immortal Gibbs.

Hynes and Edwards are among the former Mountie laxmen now enjoying the satisfactions of midlife and all the memories mounted and lessons learned along the way. Thanks in large measure to an unforgettable experience as young men, enjoying a sport that had not yet been perfected in towns such as Mountain Lakes and Moorestown, but had certainly become a special rite of passage for players, assistant coaches, team managers and other students and parents in Montclair. They had all learned to appreciate the impact of a man who would only be in this world a relatively short time, yet his impact lives on today.

This past Saturday at Anderson Park, a dedication ceremony and unveiling of a special memorial to honor both Gibbs and his longtime Mountie assistant, the late Homer Robinson, was held in the presence of upwards of 1,000 people.

"I’ve sent over 4,000 e-mails regarding the event," said Hynes, speaking via phone from his home in Syracuse, an apropos residence for a man with lacrosse in his Mountie Blue blood since the Orange are a perennial NCAA title contender and a champion once again in 2008. "Some people said we could have 500 people at Anderson Park to honor Mr. Gibbs and Coach ‘Rob.’

"We had people like Jeff Connolly [a former Mountie laxman and Navy All-American in 1976], who flew in from Japan via Hawaii.

"Allen McGuinness, who moved out of Montclair before he graduated (1972) and his brother Norman drove down from Canada. There were former Gibbs and Robinson players from all over the country who came in.

"Mr. Gibbs had that type of impact on people."

Anderson Park is the perfect venue to celebrate the coaching careers and the lives of Gibbs and Robinson since the Montclair lacrosse home games were traditionally played at the Essex County park through the early 1980s and occasionally after that.

Spreading the word about New Jersey high school lacrosse was a natural for Gibbs, who wanted to make sure the sport’s impact, and the players he coached, prospered in the game far and wide.

Those at the vanguard of promoting lacrosse in the Garden State included Gibbs, Steve Jacobson (Fair Lawn and Ridgewood), Dick Rizk (Boonton) and Dietrick E.O. von Schwerdtner of Peddie

Gibbs had a distinct vision when it came to promoting New Jersey players on the national scene, because as he used his creativity in networking to give his Montclair players exposure out of state, college scholarships followed. And, in the process, other Jersey high schools such as Columbia benefited, as its players, and those who preceded the high school team from the Maplewood Lacrosse Club, also wound up being seen by college coaches.

Coach von Schwerdtner recalled in a letter from May 2007 about Gibbs’ immense impact in putting Montclair and New Jersey on the national lacrosse map.

"In 1970 I got a call from coach Dick Szlasza at Washington & Lee," von Schwerdtner wrote. "Dick and I had been friends for many years, but this call came from out of left field. W&L was hosting the college all-star game that year and had planned on a preliminary game, pitting all-stars from Long Island and Baltimore County against one another. But, New York had a rule forbidding this, and so neither Long Island or upstate New York could participate. That left W&L with the Baltimore County team coming, but nobody to play them! Ergo, Dick’s call: ‘Could New Jersey assemble a team that would be competitive enough to make this game happen?’

"Since college coaches avoided New Jersey schools like a plague, we knew what they thought! But, some of us - notably Gil, ‘Jake,’ Boonton’s Dick Rizk and I - thought, What do we have to lose? If our kids could only do a decent job, they’d get a lot more respect than anyone was giving them before.

"Gil was the head coach; Jake and I were his helpers. It’s the best coaching staff I’ve ever been a part of, and everything else became secondary to getting our kids ready to do battle against an overwhelming favorite.

"We got out to a 3-0 lead, took advantage of their big coaching gaffe to score twice more and won the game, 11-8, with our subs getting the last goal. It was probably the most important single day in New Jersey schoolboy lacrosse, and Gil deserved all the credit he got for it! No single man has been more important to New Jersey high school lacrosse than Gil, and nobody could have been a better complement to Gil than Robby."

As an important postscript, immediately after New Jersey’s stunning win, four players from the Garden State received full scholarships and/or commitments on the field that day from coaches from Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.

The four players were Paul Edwards of Montclair, Michael Perez of the Maplewood Lacrosse Club (Hopkins), Dick Hallock (Fair Lawn) and George Martz of the Maplewood Lacrosse Club (Maryland).

All four also went on to win national championships with their respective teams and were later inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame.

As has been noted by devoted Montclair-Gibbs products, from that day on, major Division I lacrosse powers regularly recruited New Jersey high school talent.

"From 1976 to ’79 there were Montclair players named All-American 13 times," said Hynes, a two-time recipient of that honor and a member of Maryland’s 1975 national championship team. "That’s more than any other high school for about a 20-year period. "Brooks Sleeper (’73 Maryland), Bob Ott (’76 and ’78 Maryland), Jeff Connolly (’76 Navy), Pete von Hoffmann (’77 and ’79 Bucknell), John Conte (’77 and ’78 Franklin & Marshall), Pete Gunther (’77 Wesleyan), Joe Reilly (’78 Rutgers), Mark Tyree (’79 Rutgers) and John Mutch (’79 Cornell)."

In the 1975 national championship game between Maryland and Navy, Sleeper and ex-Mountie defenseman George Miller joined Hynes in the Terrapins’ lineup, while Ott was redshirting. Connolly was a middie for Navy.

For Hynes, who was certainly part of the Gibbs’ heyday of winning NJSIAA and Coaches Tournament titles, or for Edwards, who was on that ’70 Mountie team that went on to start the college connection to big-time NCAA lacrosse, the respect the coach extended and earned from his players was immense then, and still impacts today.

"Mr. Gibbs connected so well one-on-one with each player," said Edwards, who is The Montclair Kimberley Academy head coach. "He had a relationship that was unique to that individual.

"The managers on our teams enjoyed the same level of respect from him as the All-Americans. He demanded from you only what he knew you could give. Somehow, he created a level of accountability that, if you didn’t play up to your ability, you felt you had let him down because he believed in you so much."

Like many of the Gibbs players before and after him, Edwards has always felt his late coach’s impact throughout the years.

"He impacts my thinking every day, and did in my previous career [on Wall Street] as well," said Edwards. "I can’t tell you how often things come out of my mouth that are his words.

"The decisions I make, and the coaching style that I try to develop, are formed by the examples he set as my coach. The impact he made on us, and the lessons we learned from him, do not just apply to the lacrosse field.

"They have guided us to become better parents, employees and friends. We draw on those lessons continually, and I think that’s why we’re reminded of him so often."

While Gibbs, who passed away in 1978 at the age of 39, was so revered, a man also looked up to as a big part of that Montclair lacrosse coaching staff was Homer Robinson. The enthusiastic and inspirational force on and off the field, Robinson passed away in 1999 after a splendid career as a teacher and longtime assistant football and lacrosse coach at MHS.

How did Gibbs and Coach Rob, as he was endearingly known by football and lacrosse players, blend so well as a coaching tandem, and as great friends and colleagues?

"First, they were both tremendously competitive, in the best sense of the word," said Edwards. "Their approach to coaching young men was very similar, although their styles on the field were different.

"I think the bottom line is that they had a genuine respect and love for each other that was evident to their players."

Perhaps as fitting a tribute as can be made from the heart of one of their players, Edwards was honored to offer a portion of the presentation for the memorial last Saturday at Anderson Park in honor of Gibbs and Rob.

"It has been said that some teachers have the rare ability to enter the consciousness of their students in a way that allows them to remain there forever," Edwards wrote. "These men had that ability. For me, and I know that many others share this experience, not a day goes by in my life when something Mr. Gibbs or Mr. Rob imparted to me does not come to mind.

"When we were high school students during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the world, and Montclair along with it, was experiencing tremendous change that created significant tensions in the town and in the high school. Mr. Gibbs, a white man, and Mr. Robinson, a black man, made a great impression on a group of young men at that time.

"The way they worked together, how they stood for the same principles, respected, and in fact, loved each other, all provided a solid role model. They often talked to us about being there for each other, what our responsibilities were to one another as teammates, and as people.

"They encouraged us so that we knew what was right, and what was wrong, and that we had to be stronger than all of the negative influences going on around us.

"They not only spoke the words, but they convinced us with their own actions."