Victoria lacrosse legend Paul Gait underwent surgery and is recovering following a serious fall last month in Albany, New York.
“Paul Gait was involved in an accident [Nov. 3] that required surgery,” read a recent statement on Gait Lacrosse. “He is currently in recovery and resting surrounded by his friends and family. Paul will need some time, but will be back in the game soon.”
According to a report in Syracuse.com, Gait suffered a head laceration, broken ribs and required surgery to stabilize a back injury after falling 20 feet from a platform while installing insulation to a warehouse near Albany.
Paul Gait is the owner of Gait Lacrosse in Albany, a supplier of jerseys and equipment in the sport that is popular in upstate New York and down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. through Long Island, Baltimore and Virginia.
The 55-year-old Gait twins, born in Brentwood Bay, were a rare combination of raw physicality and refined high-end skill sets and are considered by many pundits the greatest lacrosse players of all time.
They were youth and junior prodigies on the Island, leading Esquimalt Legion to the 1988 Minto Cup Canadian Junior A championship before revolutionizing the field version of the sport by introducing box-lacrosse manoeuvres such as behind-the-back passes and inventing electric new moves such as Air Gait in leading the Syracuse University Orangemen to three NCAA Div. 1 titles.
Gary Gait is now head coach of Syracuse University.
At the senior level, Paul and Gary Gait won Mann Cup national championships with the Victoria Shamrocks.
Paul and Gary Gait were inducted together into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Gaits, at No. 31, joined Olympic rowing legend Silken Laumann of Victoria, at No. 34, as the three Islanders named in Sports Illustrated’s 1999 list of the top-50 Canadian athletes of the 20th Century. The list was headlined by top-three Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr.
