Syracuse.com
by James McMcClendon
For more than 50 years, Alfred “Alf” Jacques crafted tens of thousands of wooden lacrosse sticks being used around the world.
Jacques, who had been battling kidney cancer, died Wednesday, his son Ryder said Thursday morning. He was 74.
“We loved him and we knew how much people cared about him, and that helped when his end came,” Ryder said. “It was a comfort to the family that he was loved by so many people.”
His passion for the traditional art of stick-making began when his father, Lou Jacques, taught him to carve and web sticks at 12 years old.
Alf Jacques, who also played both box and field lacrosse, began making sticks with his father to save money. During a 2020 interview, Jacques said he and his father ruined the first eight pieces of wood because they “didn’t know what we were doing.”
That would soon change. By 1973, the father and son crafters were pumping out about 12,000 hand-made sticks per year. That number dropped to 1,200 per year in 1974 when plastic sticks started being mass-produced.
Alf Jacques also credited his grandmother for teaching him the art of making black ash wooden splint baskets when he was about 5 years old. That skill shaped the precision and dedication he used in each of the lacrosse sticks he produced over the years.
When his father died of emphysema in 1985, Alf Jacques continued his legacy of making traditional wooden sticks and helped to keep the ”Creator’s Game” alive.
After years of serving the lacrosse community, Jacques was enshrined in the Upstate Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame in 2014.
His legacy, much like his father’s, extended well beyond just crafting sticks. He helped shape the games and minds of young lacrosse players and coaches in Central New York and around the country.
“He loved what he did,” Ryder said. “He loved lacrosse. He loved the people, loved talking to them and teaching them things. There are so many people you could talk to that would tell you how much he inspired them.”