Greg "GD" Downing (born March 24, 1985, in

Auburn, New York Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States. Located at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York, the city had a population of 26,866 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city of Cayuga County, the ...

) is a professional

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player with the Denver Outlaws of

Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff f ...

and with the

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. ...

of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

. He was selected to participate in the 2008 and 2009 MLL All-Star Games.

College

Downing attended

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time ...

, where he was a three-time All-American. In 2005, Downing helped lead the

Stags Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

to the

Great Western Lacrosse League The Great Western Lacrosse League, also known as the GWLL, was an NCAA Division I men's college lacrosse athletic conference that existed from 1994 to 2009. The conference was created when the NCAA instituted automatic qualifiers to the NCAA cha ...

Championship and the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Tournament. Also in 2006 and 2007, he was selected for the

Tewaaraton Trophy The Tewaaraton Award is an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players, since 2001. It is the lacrosse equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. The award is presented by The Tewaaraton Foundation and th ...

Preseason Watchlist, given to the nation's most outstanding NCAA lacrosse player. During his college career Downing produced 141 points, on 101 goals and 40 assists. Downing was clocked shooting the ball 109 mph in practice.

Professional

Downing was drafted in the 1st round (6th overall) of the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Collegiate Draft by the

Los Angeles Riptide The Los Angeles Riptide were a lacrosse team based in Carson, California. From 2006 to 2008, they played in Major League Lacrosse and ceased operations before the 2009 season. Franchise history In March 2005, Major League Lacrosse, MLL announced ...

. Downing was also selected in the 4th round (43rd overall) in the 2007

National Lacrosse League expansion draft The National Lacrosse League expansion draft is a meeting where the general managers of expansion National Lacrosse League teams begin to fill their teams with unprotected players from the rosters of existing NLL teams. Such a draft occurs whenever ...

by the Boston Blazers. As a member of the

, Downing was selected to play in the 2008 MLL All-Star Game, and as a member of the Denver Outlaws he was selected to play in the 2009 MLL All-Star Game. Downing won the 2011 MLL championship with the

Boston Cannons The Cannons Lacrosse Club are a professional men's field lacrosse team in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) . Formerly based in Boston, Massachusetts, they played in Major League Lacrosse (MLL) as the Boston Cannons from their inaugural 2001 sea ...

and the 2016 MLL Championship with the Denver Outlaws. On March 14, 2018, Downing retired from the MLL.

Team USA

Downing was one of 18 players named to the

United States men's national lacrosse team The United States men's national lacrosse team has won ten of thirteen World Lacrosse Championships, the most recent in 2018. Team USA finished second in the other three field lacrosse tournaments, losing to Canada in 1978, 2006, and 2014. The tea ...

by U.S. Indoor Lacrosse and participated at the

2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship was the third World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, an international box lacrosse tournament organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse every four years. It took place between 21 and 28 May 201 ...

in Prague, Czech Republic, in May 2011, where he won the bronze medal. At the

2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC) was the fourth international box lacrosse championship organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse every four years. The 2015 WILC was hosted by the Onondaga Nation, south of Syracuse ...

, hosted by the Onondaga nation, Downing was again a member of the team, and again won the bronze medal. In 2019, Downing was named to the team again.

External links

Boston Blazers Profile"The Goal" – 2005 Last Second Game Winning Goal vs. Notre Dame

References

1985 births Living people American lacrosse players Boston Blazers players Minnesota Swarm players Georgia Swarm players Fairfield Stags men's lacrosse players Major League Lacrosse players Denver Outlaws players Sportspeople from Auburn, New York {{US-lacrosse-bio-stub