JERRY KIERAN '92 - 2017 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee

In more than a century of Clarkson Athletics, only the hockey program has seen more players earn All-American honors than the Golden Knights’ men’s lacrosse program, a team that first saw action in 1960. Thirty players have earned the accolade in the 58 seasons since, with just four picking up United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Third-Team All-American selections, and four repeating any kind of All-American honor.

Defenseman Jerry Kieran just happened to do both.


At 6-1 and 185 pounds and possessing average speed, Kieran was neither the speedster nor the hulking defenseman to which teams normally gravitate, but his tenacity and lacrosse intelligence quotient made him the most decorated defender in Clarkson Lacrosse history.

When Kieran arrived on campus back in the fall of 1988 from Yorktown Heights, NY, the Golden Knights were coming off an ECAC Championship and were clearly a team on the rise. Kieran’s arrival ensured there would be no fall back: when he left four years later, the team had claimed another ECAC Championship and made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament, at a time when only eight teams in the nation were chosen to play for the national title.

Kieran was the team’s top defender in his final three seasons with the Knights, and was routinely tasked with taking on the opposition’s top attacker. An exceedingly smart player with excellent field vision, Kieran excelled both on the ball and off the ball, using angles to both deny passes and forcing turnovers as a close defender. In addition to his excellence on the defensive end, Kieran found ways to get involved on offense as well, scoring five goals with three assists in his career.

An immediate contributor to the Knights, Kieran was a three-time all-league player, earning ICAC First-Team honors in both his sophomore and junior seasons and then gaining All-EAA selection in 1992. In the latter two seasons, Kieran earned USILA All-American Third-Team status, becoming the first and remaining the only player in program history to gain the accolade in consecutive seasons.  Following the conclusion of the 1992 season, Kieran was chosen to represent Clarkson in the prestigious North/South Senior game, becoming just the ninth Golden Knight to do so.



Jerry Kieran with Clarkson President Tony Collins and Athletic Director Steve Yianoukos