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Princeton University Athletics
Chris Sailer Named To National Lacrosse Hall Of Fame Class Of 2008
May 24, 2008 | Women's Lacrosse
In the fall of 1986, Chris Sailer came to Princeton to coach a women's lacrosse team that had won just six of 39 games the previous three seasons and had a 20-46 record in the NCAA tournament era.
22 years later, in the fall of 2008, Sailer will join her Princeton men's lacrosse counterpart Bill Tierney as a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
The three-time national coach of the year, whose 282 wins in 22 seasons rank second among active Division I head coaches, was named as one of eight 2008 Hall of Fame inductees in voting announced Saturday. This year's class will be inducted in a ceremony Nov. 10 at The Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley, Md.
Sailer has led Princeton to three NCAA championships, 17 NCAA tournament appearances and nine Ivy League titles in her 22 seasons as head coach. In 2002 and 2003, the Tigers won back-to-back NCAA titles, at the time becoming just the second team to accomplish that feat. With the addition of the team's first NCAA title, in 1994, Sailer's Tigers are one of just four teams in Division I to have won at least three titles.
Sailer's 282 wins trail only current Navy head coach Cindy Timchal among active Division I coaches and also rank among the top 10 all-time in NCAA history. Her 28 NCAA tournament victories are also second all-time in Division I behind Timchal.
The national coach of the year in 1993, 1994 and 2000, she has also won the Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year award six times (1992, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2002).
Her first season at Princeton was 1987; in 1988, the Tigers finished .500 or better for the first time in five years. In 1989, Sailer led Princeton to the NCAA semifinals and a 14-3 overall record, the first of the team's 17 NCAA tournament appearances in her 22 years as coach. She has led Princeton to 21 straight non-losing seasons and at least 10 victories 19 times in the last 20 years.
The Tigers reached at least the national semifinals five straight years from 1992-96 and again from 2000-2004. Princeton won a team-record 28 consecutive games spanning the 2003 and 2004 seasons before falling in the 2004 NCAA championship game, its third straight finals appearance. The Tigers' thre-year record from 2002-04 was an impressive 54-6, including 20-1 in the Ivy League.
Overall, under Sailer, Princeton has played in the NCAA championship game seven times.
In the Ivy League, Sailer has led Princeton to an impressive 110-21 record. The Tigers have won at least five Ivy League games in each of the last 16 seasons. Since 1993, Princeton has finished either first or second in the league standings 15 times in 16 seasons, including four straight league titles from 2001-04.
At Princeton, Sailer has coached 20 first-team All-Americas, 39 first-team All-Ivy League picks, eight Ivy League Players of the Year and eight Ivy League Rookies of the Year.
Also active in the leadership of the collegiate game, she is a former chair of the Tewaaraton Trophy selection committee and a former member of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Committee. She currently is a member of the IWLCA Board of Directors and serves on the USLacrosse Women's Division Board of Governors as the College Coaches Representative.
She has previously been inducted in the athletic halls of fame of her two alma maters, Haverford High School outside Philadelphia and Harvard University, as well as the USLacrosse New England and Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania Halls of Fame.
Joining Sailer in the 2008 class are players Roberta Brennan, Tom Marechek and George Tracy, umpire Lynn Craun, contributors Pat Dillon and Dick Watts and Dom Starsia, the long-time head coach of the Virginia men's lacrosse team.