(Click on photos on right for larger images.) Robert Pool Sr. was born Oct. 12th., 1908 in Baltimore, MD, in the Terraces home of Theodore A. and Roschelle B. Pool; died in Willingboro, New Jersey on July 22, 1991. As a boy, he displayed a determination about doing things that caused his father Theodore to say to him, "Determination is a virtue, but when carried to extreme, degenerates into stubbornness, and I don't know where you stop and start!" Before going to college, he bought at auction an ex-police Harley-Davidon motorcycle for $5.00, and proceeded to tear up and down the steep hill leading to the Terraces homes. At one point, a friend asked him if he could try riding the motorcycle, and Robert said "sure." However, the friend had not mentioned to Robert that he'd never ridden a motorcycle before, and really didn't know how to ride or control it. This friend promptly went off-road down the hill and plowed through a barbed wire fence. Father took the now rather bloody friend home to clean him up, hoping that he'd get this done before his mother Roschelle (Rose) came home, since she fainted at the sight of blood. And, right on cue, just as he finished cleaning up his friend & all the blood, Roschelle came through the door! He was educated at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where he graduated in 1927. At school, Bob was an all around athlete taking part in all forms of athletics, but it was in lacrosse where he excelled. Starting with the Mt. Washington Juniors 1921-1923, then at Poly where his teams were champions for four years, 1924 thru 1927, and Bob was the outstanding player in school ranks. When Robert went off to college, his younger brother Theodore "Teddy" was into taking things apart to see how they worked. Teddy dismantled the family's Edison phonograph, his mother's vacuum cleaner, and father's motorcycle, and once he had satisfied his curiosity, he lost interest, and never would put anything back together. One of the things Robert used to do to hone his lacrosse skills was to throw a lacrosse ball against the side of the barn on the Terraces property, training himself to be able to throw both right-handed and left-handed (which apparently was an innovation at the time). The family joke was that this activity was what caused the barn to fall down. He attended St. Johns College in Annapolis, MD from 1928 to 1931 on an athletic or lacrosse scholarship, and became an all-american lacrosse player, later mentioned in the book "The Lacrosse Story" by Milt Roberts et al. At St. John's, Bob won ALL American Mention in 1928-29-30, was Captain and Best Bet ALL American in 1931 and also leading scorer. The St. John's team of 1929 were National Open Champions and the 30-31 teams were Intercollegiate Champions and Bob captained the 1931 team. He married Dorothy Cann of the Terraces, Mt. Washington, Baltimore, MD in May 1931, the couple eloping. After college, Bob played professional Box Lacrosse in Canada, 1931-32. For the most part lived in Baltimore, MD until moving to Willingboro, NJ in 1962; during the 1930's lived in Boston, MA while he was lacrosse coach at Harvard Univ. While at Harvard, he had an outstanding record winning the New England League in 1935. His 1932 team beat Yale for the first time in 17 years. During the later 1930's into the 1940's, he jointly ran with his father-in-law, Samuel E. Cann, an athletic supply store that was located at 2311 N. Charles St., some blocks above North Avenue. Mother said she distinctly remembers father having the store at the time Pearl Harbor was bombed (12/7/1941). Bob played six years of Box Lacrosse here in the states in the Swarthmore Chester League, and organized and played Box Lacrosse for television in 1950-51. Bob also coached the Maryland Lacrosse Club. (See photo of store with other photos here.) Survived by wife Dorothy, son Robert and daughter Nancy. While he will most likely be known for his achievements in lacrosse, including the invention of the first double-wood-wall stick, he was a bit of a tinkerer who liked to try his hand at inventing things. He obtained 3 U.S. patents for lacrosse innovations, but also played with designing a faster catamaran sailboat via making sailing models and testing them in nearby lakes & ponds. He consulted with a pharmacist friend named Al Morgan and came up with a prototype diet pill. He also did not like spelling bees in that each contestant had a different word to spell, so he invented a large electronic numbers and alphabet letter game that he hoped to sell for a great deal of money. He later set this game up in his garage in Willingboro, and invited neighborhood children to play it. This proved to be so popular with the children that they would knock on our door for years wanting to know if they could play "the game." In later life enjoyed swimming, sailing, and playing tennis. It is interesting to note that while enjoying his career as a lacrosse player, he was handicapped by a blind spot in his vision on one side, apparently a birth defect. This affected his ability to see opposing players approaching him from the affected side, and he commented in later life about continually being hit or knocked on this side during games. He was in favor of making lacrosse more popular by changing the rules so that the game would be played with a bigger ball, and co-authored a series of articles entitled "What's Wrong With Lacrosse" that appeared in the newspaper "Baltimore News-Post", now defunct. The co-author of this series may have been the well-known Baltimore sports writer John Steadman. His notebooks from his lacrosse career (along with the first double-wood-wall stick) are in the archives of the USLacrosse Hall of Fame Museum, next to the athletic field at Johns Hopkins Univ. in Baltimore, MD. The actual framed award has on its back the script that the presenter read when the award was given (from which some of the details above are taken). The last line reads, "It is, therefore, with the greatest pleasure and honor that I hereby present to Robert Pool, one of the greatest of all attackmen ever to play lacrosse, this certificate of membership into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame." More info. on his lacrosse career can be seen on the page devoted to him at the US Lacrosse website.