Charlie Gummey ’63 was a tremendous three-sport athlete at Washington and Lee, competing in football, lacrosse and swimming.
Gummey lettered in all three sports and was selected to serve as a team captain for all three prior to his senior year. Additionally, he was selected as the first-ever recipient of the Washington and Lee Outstanding First-Year Athlete Award in 1960.
On the football field, Gummey was one of the team’s leading running backs on some of the greatest teams in school history. He was the team’s second-leading rusher with 346 yards and four touchdowns on the 1960 team that finished 8-0-1 overall. He then led the Generals with 363 yards and six touchdowns as W&L posted a perfect 9-0 record in 1961. That team was selected by the Washington, D.C., Touchdown Club as the Outstanding Small College Football team in the country and has also been honored in the W&L Athletics Hall of Fame.
Gummey led the 1961 team in scoring with 54 points en route to earning Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Though the lacrosse team went just 5-15-1 over his three seasons, Gummey was among the team’s best players as a midfielder. He finished as the team’s second-leading scorer as a sophomore (12 G, 1 A) and junior (14 G, 1 A) en route to earning Honorable Mention All-America laurels from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 1962.
In the pool, Gummey earned three letters and had a large hand in the Generals posting a 23-6-1 overall record across his three seasons. He was the team’s second-leading point scorer as a junior and he was part of the 400 medley relay team that set a then-school record with a time of 3:52.6.
