Take a Shot! is the incredible true story of how three unlikely partners—world-famous fitness icon Jake Steinfeld, former Princeton University lacrosse star Dave Morrow, and son of a TV preacher Tim Robertson—broke all the rules and beat all the odds to create Major League Lacrosse. This book will take you on a roller-coaster ride through the ups and downs of starting a business—and not just any business, but a professional sports league built around America’s oldest and most tradition-bound game. Today, Major League Lacrosse is entering its 12th season, and the sport has exploded into the fastest-growing game in the U.S. But it wasn’t always that way . . . not even close. For four crazy, chaotic years, from 1998 to 2001, Jake, Dave, and Tim faced enormous obstacles and endless challenges in their lonely battle to make their lacrosse dream come true.
From the earliest inspiration—Jake’s chance reading of a magazine article that got the ball rolling—to the wild search for investors and owners, to the insane setbacks that nearly derailed the league time and time again, to the emotional and triumphant debut of Major League Lacrosse, Take a Shot! is an action-packed, thrill-a-minute adventure story.
But this book is also about friendship under fire. It tells the tale of three men from vastly different worlds—Jake, the brash Hollywood icon and driving force behind Major League Lacrosse; Dave, a shy Ivy Leaguer from blue-collar Detroit and the ultimate fish out of water; and Tim, the son of TV evangelist Pat Robertson and a multimedia mogul—who teamed up to try the impossible: start a professional sports league from scratch at a time when other leagues were crashing and burning around them.
When Jake recruited Dave to be his partner, neither had any idea what was in store for them, nor what it took to start something like this (after all, who does?). But they had something more important: a gut instinct that, from day one, they could always trust each other. And so, with only a handshake, they ignored all the naysayers who warned them that they were doomed to fail and together built Major League Lacrosse, weathering every crisis and shrugging off each disaster along the way. And in the process, their partnership evolved into an enduring friendship, as Jake helped Dave blossom into a big-time entrepreneur, and Dave—at a crucial moment with everything on the line—came out of his shell and justified Jake’s relentless faith in him.
Jake Steinfeld is a world-renowned fitness expert and motivator who founded Major League Lacrosse in 1998. The founder and chairman of Body By Jake GlobalŪ LLC, he pioneered the personal-fitness training industry and created America’s first fitness-lifestyle television network, FitTV. He served as chair of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for California, and is presently the chair of the National Foundation for Governor’s Fitness Councils. Jake is also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of I’ve Seen a Lot of Famous People Naked, and They’ve Got Nothing On You!, as well as Power Living by Jake: Eleven Lessons to Change Your Life; Don’t Quit: Motivation and Exercise to Bring Out the Winner in You—One Day at a Time; and Get Strong!: Body By Jake’s Guide to Building Confidence, Muscles, and a Great Future for Teenage Guys. Jake, his wife Tracey, and their four children live in Los Angeles, California.
David K. Morrow is an entrepreneur, businessman, and cofounder of Major League Lacrosse (MLL). The former star of the Princeton Tigers men’s lacrosse team from 1990 to 1993, he was a three-time United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) All-American, twice making the first team.
In an illustrious college career, David still holds the distinction of being the last defenseman to earn the NCAA lacrosse player of the year award, was a two-time NCAA defenseman of the year, and made the all–Ivy League first team three times. During his collegiate career, Princeton won the school’s first NCAA tournament championship, won two Ivy League championships, and earned the school’s first four NCAA tournament invitations. Following college, he represented Team USA in the 1994 and 1998 World Lacrosse Championships and was named to the 1998 All-World Team.
His equipment company, Warrior Sports, is a leading equipment provider to professional, collegiate, and interscholastic teams and players. It provides a variety of equipment and has propagated the interest in titanium material for use in lacrosse and ice-hockey equipment. By cofounding the MLL, he has expanded professional lacrosse from box lacrosse to field lacrosse.
