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A retiring member of the faculty, Ann L. Gold, instructor of athletics and head coach of field hockey, has been elected to emerita status and will be recognized at the 172nd Commencement.
ANN L. GOLD, instructor of athletics and head coach of field hockey, will become instructor emerita of athletics after 25 years at Lafayette. She also served as head coach of women’s lacrosse for 17 years until 1999, and had 29 winning seasons between the two sports. Gold retires having coached in a combined 790 games with 477 wins, the most victories ever by any Lafayette coach. She collected five field hockey and two lacrosse Patriot League Coach of the Year plaques during her tenure.
Gold was hired in 1982 as head coach of both field hockey and women’s lacrosse at Lafayette. She was one of the last coaches in Division I to coach two sports before deciding to concentrate solely on field hockey following the 1999 season.
She led lacrosse to two East Coast Conference championships, seven Patriot League championships, and two appearances in NCAA playoffs, finishing third in the 1988 NCAA Championships. In field hockey she led her team to nine Patriot League season championships, three Patriot League tournament championships, and two appearances in the NCAA tournament. Gold’s 1999 field hockey squad was the first-ever Patriot League team to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. Her field hockey teams also won two East Coast Conference Championships and three Eastern College Athletic Conference championships.
Seven of the outstanding young women Gold coached left Lafayette with national or regional All-America status, while eleven of Gold’s players garnered Patriot League Player of the Year honors.
Gold ends her field hockey career just three wins shy of 300 and remains one of the winningest coaches for a single sport on College Hill with a career record of 297-184-23. She ranks in the top 20 among National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I coaches for career wins and games coached.
Gold is a 1972 graduate of Ursinus College, where she played four years of field hockey and lacrosse. She began her career as a high school physical education teacher and coach of field hockey and women’s lacrosse for nine years before coming to Lafayette.
She plans to spend the winter months at her Florida condominium in Bonita Springs, just north of Naples, and attend as many Lafayette field hockey games as she can to watch the players and program continue to develop.