Bob Shillinglaw coached University of Delaware’s men’s lacrosse for 37 years, and introduced thousands to the sport through his work with the Delaware Lacrosse Foundation. He was inducted into both the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) Hall of Fame and the UD Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.
The Annapolis, Md. native coached the Blue Hens to a 310-303 record, 15 conference titles, six NCAA tournaments, and the 2007 Final Four. He coached more games (654) than any other college lacrosse coach in the history of the sport and is one of only two to win over 300 games at one school.
He was national collegiate Coach of the Year in 1979 and 2007 and conference Coach of the Year five times. He twice coached in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association North-South game. He was selected as head coach of Team USA for the 1999 inaugural World Cup of Lacrosse. Team USA defeated Team Canada in a best-of-three at Johns Hopkins University in Bal-more.
He was an officer of the United States Lacrosse Coaches Association and served on United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Committees on rules, tournament selection, weekly poll, education and training, USA Team Selection, and National Player of the Year selection. In 2017, he was awarded the USILA Howdy Myers Man of the Year Award for outstanding contributions to the game of lacrosse.
In 1980, he established the Delaware Lacrosse Foundation Regional Chapter, which helped increase youth and high school boys and girls lacrosse programs. He assisted with starting the Delaware Youth Lacrosse Association. He served as the DLF President for 37 years.
He established the Delaware Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame for the State of Delaware and established the DLF Website and DLF Senior All Star Game. He undertook yearly boys and girls instructional clinics from 1978-2017 for youth and high school via both DLF and the UD men’s lacrosse program (drew nearly 100,000 campers all-time). The Delaware Lacrosse Foundation Boys Coach of the Year award is named in his honor.
He established Battle of the Hotbeds, a nationally-known recruiting tournament in 1999. He also was an assistant coach for the MLL Chesapeake Bayhawks in 2018 and 2019.