Flip Naumburg coached at CSU for 14 years, developing one of the strongest programs in collegiate lacrosse. Naumburg was inducted into the Colorado Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame in 2006 and the CSULAA Hall of Fame in 2010. The MCLA’s Coach of the Year award was posthumously renamed the Flip Naumburg Award in his honor in 2018. He was also named USLIA Coach of the year for the 1999 season.
Naumburg led the Rams to an impressive 208-52 overall record, as well as winning four MCLA championships (1999, 2001, 2003, and 2006) and six RMLC titles. He emphasized the “family” concept, making every player feel a part of something greater than themselves and striving to help young men develop off the field. With an extensive knowledge of the game and players, Naumburg built the CSU men’s lacrosse program into what it is today.
Beyond coaching, Naumburg was a prolific inventor and helped grow the game significantly. He invented the offset head, which revolutionized the sport by introducing a new style of play with better stick control, wind-ups, and fakes. The offset head being universally used in the sport today stands as evidence that Flip helped bring the game into a new era.
In 1973, he co-founded the Vail Lacrosse Shootout, which grew into one of the largest and longest-running lacrosse tournaments in the world. In 1987 he founded Rock-It Pocket, a custom-stringing company that improved ball control.