Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 1/13/08
West Chester University legend Gertrude Dunn and former Temple University great Gail Cummings-Danson were inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame at a ceremony Nov. 10 at The Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley, Md.
Dunn and Cummings-Danson were two of 10 members who were part of the 50th class of inductees.
Also inducted was Susan K. Kidder of East Stroudsburg University, a former coach at Norristown High and Ursinus College.
Dunn, an outstanding all-around athlete who is also a member of the West Chester Athletics Hall of Fame, was inducted posthumously. Dunn played on the U.S. national team from 1957 to 1963 and was a member of the U.S. team that toured Great Britain and Ireland in 1957. She also served as an umpire for 20 years in the Philadelphia Women’s Lacrosse Association.
Away from lacrosse, Dunn played shortstop in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous by the 1992 movie, “A League of Their Own.” She was the rookie of the year in the league in 1952. She was also inducted into the National Field Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988.
Dunn participated in both field hockey and lacrosse while at West Chester in the late 1950s. She died in 2004 when the plane she was piloting crashed in Avondale, Chester County.
Cummings-Danson scored a NCAA record 289 goals during her career at Temple, including 88 in 1988 when she led the Owls to a perfect 19-0 record and the NCAA championship. She was a three-time All-American, earning first team honors in 1987 and 1988.
Cummings-Danson played for the Canadian national team from 1982 to 1989 and then helped the U.S. win the World Cup in 1993. Currently, the athletic director at Skidmore College, she previously coached lacrosse at Connecticut College, Temple and Albany. She has been inducted into the Temple University Hall of Fame and the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Kidder, a member of the first U.S. World Cup team, played four years at East Stroudsburg University and was named the school’s outstanding senior female athlete in 1969. She made the U.S. team for the first time in 1970 and helped the 1982 squad win its first World Cup.
Kidder was the head coach at Norristown from 1972-81 and also served as an assistant coach for Ursinus College’s 1983 Division III national championship team. Kidder has been inducted into the East Stroudsburg University Athletic Hall of Fame and the US Lacrosse Philadelphia Chapter Hall of Fame.
