Greg "GD" Downing (born March 24, 1985, in

Auburn, New York Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States. Located at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York, the city had a population of 26,866 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city of Cayuga County, the ...

) is an American professional

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 with the

Denver Outlaws The Denver Outlaws are a professional field lacrosse team based in Denver, Colorado, that competes in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). Founded as the Chrome Lacrosse Club, they began play as one of the league's six inaugural teams in the ...

Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001 Major League Lacrosse season, 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This w ...

and with the

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a Canadian professional box lacrosse team based in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area that competes in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. The Rock play their home ga ...

of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league comprises 14 teams8 in the United States and 6 in Canada. The NLL is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

. He was selected to participate in the 2008 and 2009 MLL All-Star Games.

College

Downing attended

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

, where he was a three-time All-American. In 2005, Downing helped lead the

Stags A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) an ...

to the

Great Western Lacrosse League The Great Western Lacrosse League, also known as the GWLL, was an National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I (NCAA), Division I men's college lacrosse athletic conference that existed from 1994 to 2009. The conference was created wh ...

Championship and the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Tournament. Also in 2006 and 2007, he was selected for the

Tewaaraton Trophy The Tewaaraton Award is an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players, since 2001. It is the lacrosse equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. The award is presented by The Tewaaraton Foundation and ...

Preseason Watchlist, given to the nation's most outstanding NCAA lacrosse player. During his college career Downing produced 141 points, on 101 goals and 40 assists. Downing was clocked shooting the ball 109 mph in practice.

Professional

Downing was drafted in the 1st round (6th overall) of the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Collegiate Draft by the

Los Angeles Riptide The Los Angeles Riptide were a professional lacrosse team based in Carson, California. From 2006 to 2008, they played in Major League Lacrosse and ceased operations before the 2009 season. Franchise history In March 2005, MLL announced that Lo ...

. Downing was also selected in the 4th round (43rd overall) in the 2007

National Lacrosse League expansion draft The National Lacrosse League expansion draft is a meeting where the general managers of expansion National Lacrosse League teams begin to fill their teams with unprotected players from the rosters of existing NLL teams. Such a draft occurs whenever ...

by the Boston Blazers. As a member of the

, Downing was selected to play in the 2008 MLL All-Star Game, and as a member of the

he was selected to play in the 2009 MLL All-Star Game. Downing won the 2011 MLL championship with the

Boston Cannons The Boston Cannons are a professional field lacrosse team based in Boston, Massachusetts, that competes in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). The team plays its home games at Harvard Stadium. The team competed in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) fro ...

and the 2016 MLL Championship with the

. On March 14, 2018, Downing retired from the MLL.

Team USA

Downing was one of 18 players named to the

United States men's national lacrosse team The United States men's national lacrosse team has won eleven of fourteen World Lacrosse Championships, the most recent in 2023. Team USA finished second in the other three field lacrosse tournaments, losing to Canada in 1978, 2006, and 2014. The ...

by U.S. Indoor Lacrosse and participated at the

2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship was the third World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, an international box lacrosse tournament organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse every four years. It took place between 21 and 28 May 20 ...

Prague, Czech Republic Prague ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 m ...

, in May 2011, where he won the bronze medal. At the

2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC) was the fourth international box lacrosse championship organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse every four years. The 2015 WILC was hosted by the Onondaga Nation in the United State ...

, hosted by the

Onondaga nation The Onondaga people (Onontaerrhonon, Onondaga: , "People of the Hills") are one of the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in the Northeastern Woodlands. Their historical homelands are in and around present-day Ono ...

, Downing was again a member of the team, and again won the bronze medal. In 2019, Downing was named to the team again.

External links

Boston Blazers Profile"The Goal" – 2005 Last Second Game Winning Goal vs. Notre Dame

References

1985 births Living people American lacrosse players Boston Blazers players Minnesota Swarm players Georgia Swarm players Fairfield Stags men's lacrosse players Major League Lacrosse players Denver Outlaws players Sportspeople from Auburn, New York Lacrosse players from New York (state) {{US-lacrosse-bio-stub