Avery Felton Blake Sr. (April 8, 1907 – August 25, 1975) was an American college

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

player and coach. He served as the head lacrosse coach at his alma mater,

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

from 1931 to 1959. Blake also served as president of the

United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is an association of member institutions and organizations with college lacrosse programs at all levels of competition, including the three NCAA divisions and non-NCAA schools, at both the varsi ...

. He was inducted into the

National Lacrosse Hall of Fame The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, is located in Sparks, Maryland, at the USA Lacrosse headquarters. Prior to moving to its present location in 2016, the hall of fame and museum was located in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Homewood c ...

in 1961 and is the father of National Lacrosse Hall of Fame player Avery Blake Jr.

Early life

Blake was raised in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. He attended

Baltimore Polytechnic Institute The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a US public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational high school by the Baltimore City Council and the ...

, from which he graduated in 1925. He then went on to college at the

in 1925. While there, he played

and served as the lacrosse team's captain and student coach as a senior. Blake graduated from Swarthmore in 1928 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree.

Coach at Swarthmore and Penn

Blake was Swarthmore's 18th lacrosse coach. The Garnett started up the sport in 1891 and were voted

National Champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

in 1900, 1904, 1905 and 1910. Following early success in the game, Blake was able to elevate his team to the level of those turn-of-the-century Swarthmore teams. In 29 seasons, Swarthmore under Blake won or shared eight Pennsylvania league titles. The 1941 team lost only one game, that being to eventual National Champion Johns Hopkins. The 1953 squad had the distinction of winning the

USILA The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is an association of member institutions and organizations with college lacrosse programs at all levels of competition, including the three NCAA divisions and non-NCAA schools, at both the varsi ...

Class "B" National title, also losing just one game, to Hopkins. Blake coached his son Avery, Jr., also an inductee into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, on these teams. Blake, after Swarthmore, went on to coach at Penn, retiring just prior to the move by college lacrosse to the NCAA tournament format.

Later life and honors

After his coaching tenure at Swarthmore, Blake remained active in the sport of lacrosse serving in an various administrative and rule-setting capacities. In 1960 he joined the staff of

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

as an assistant football coach. In Bob Scott's well-known lacrosse tome, ''Lacrosse: Technique and Tradition'', he credited Blake with being the "first to popularize the zone defense". Blake died in 1975. The

inducted Blake in 1961. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame Avery F. Blake, Sr.
National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.Swarthmore.edu
, Swarthmore College, Men's Lacrosse : Archive.

Head coaching record

Football

References