Mark Red Burnham

[wgdsr]

Red lost his battle with cancer. He was a fantastic player and in ways that don't apply but to a few greats, a better person. He was larger than life for many. Enjoyed and lived the hell out of life. Helped many. He will be greatly missed.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[CuseLegacy]

 

[sutomcat]

The Burhams are a great family and made a huge impact on lacrosse in Eastwood.

RiP Mark. You were always a joy to watch play.

 

[FloridaCuse]

Great story for those who can access. Over 100 Haudenosaunee gathered on Tuesday for a "Medicine Game" in his honor at the Onondaga Fieldhouse. He was able to attend though sat in his car. Others gathered elsewhere, including at Henninger and Lars' team at UVa. He died the next day.

Former Syracuse, Haudenosaunee lacrosse star Mark Burnam dies of cancer the day after tribute game

Over 100 lacrosse players converged at the Onondaga Fieldhouse for a lacrosse game to celebrate the former Henninger and SU star.

www.syracuse.com

 

[FloridaCuse]

Great story for those who can access. Over 100 Haudenosaunee gathered on Tuesday for a "Medicine Game" in his honor at the Onondaga Fieldhouse. He was able to attend though sat in his car. Others gathered elsewhere, including at Henninger and Lars' team at UVa. He died the next day.

Former Syracuse, Haudenosaunee lacrosse star Mark Burnam dies of cancer the day after tribute game

Over 100 lacrosse players converged at the Onondaga Fieldhouse for a lacrosse game to celebrate the former Henninger and SU star.

www.syracuse.com

I'm going to take a chance. Given the importance of this story, as a tribute to him I'm going to post much of this article. I hope this is allowable.

Former Syracuse, Haudenosaunee lacrosse star Mark Burnam dies of cancer the day after tribute game​

Published: Sep. 11, 2025
By Connor Pignatello
Syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. – The call for a medicine game rang out across Haudenosaunee territory on Tuesday afternoon.

From Kahnawake to Akwesasne to Cattaraugus to Onondaga, over 100 lacrosse players converged at the Onondaga Fieldhouse for a lacrosse game to celebrate Mark Burnam, who played for the Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team at their international debut in 1990 and later coached them to a bronze medal at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships.

On Wednesday, the day after the medicine game, Burnam died from lymphoma. He was 64.

“I think it was part of the reason why he slipped away yesterday because he saw this outpouring of love that came from all the territories,” said Nationals head coach Rex Lyons, a former teammate and longtime friend of Burnam. “He brought us all together again for one more time.”

He is survived by his wife, Lana, four children, Hugh, 40, Tyler, 33, Brad, 31, and Cheyenne, 28, and four grandchildren.

Burnam’s lacrosse career touched almost every level of the sport in Upstate New York. He was the MVP of the Henninger team that won Section III’s first lacrosse state championship in 1980 and was part of Syracuse’s first national championship team in 1983.

He also won a pair of world championships with the NLL’s Buffalo Bandits during a decade-plus professional career and coached at several different levels across the Haudenosaunee youth and senior system, in addition to working as a lacrosse referee.

“I think he’d want to be remembered as somebody who gave back to the game and gave back to his community,” Hugh said. “A gift that he had been given in his life was to give to the future generation of lacrosse players, who he viewed as having a shot at college through lacrosse.”

Over 100 people were at Tuesday’s spur-of-the-moment medicine game, Lyons said, and at least 100 lacrosse players took the field at the same time. Many of the players hadn’t seen each other in years. Most were former teammates of Burnam’s on the Nationals, or former players he coached, or friends from his years of work in the game he devoted much of his life to. All were Haudenosaunee.

Tadedaho Sid Hill and spiritual advisor Tracy Shenandoah helped lead the ceremony and players from all eras attended. Some of Burnam and Lyons’ teammates from the original Haudenosaunee squad played. So did current Haudenosaunee stars like Jeremy Thompson and Tehoka Nanticoke, who rose to be the country’s top high school recruit under Burnam at IMG Academy.

Burnam was confined to his car on Tuesday, but the Haudenosaunee made space in the ceremonial circle for his car, and he stayed for the game’s duration.

“I could tell, because I was talking to him, how moved he was,” Lyons said.

“He enjoyed people coming up and saying ‘Hi,’ and that was pretty much it,” Hugh said.

Roughly 10 miles away, at Henninger High School, old friends were also recognizing Burnam. About two dozen former lacrosse players gathered to play wall ball at the high school, including Burnam’s high school coach, Tom Ace, and a handful of his former Henninger teammates. Tom Abbott and Matt Palumb, two longtime lacrosse officials and Syracuse alums, also attended.

Their message spread across social media. LaFayette native and Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany gathered his Cavaliers to play wall ball and played with a traditional wooden stick. Nazareth and UAlbany joined in, too.

“It was just really uplifting,” Acee said. “Before you go into something like that, you don’t know what to expect. But I came off it just uplifted, feeling really good.”

Burnam was a highly confident and highly competitive kid at Henninger, Acee said. His family was all-in on lacrosse too – his younger brothers Scott and Dan served as ballboys, his sister Denise was the scorekeeper and his mother Marlene was the Black Knights’ No. 1 fan, Acee said.

“He was a go-to-the-cage type kid,” Acee said. “Here I am, I’m going at you and I’m going to beat you.”

Burnam played all over the field across his career – “a utility player,” Lyons said. He starred at attack for Henninger, then played mostly midfield for the Haudenosaunee, assisting Lyons on countless goals. He switched to long-stick midfielder when they needed someone to fill the position and also played as a defender in the pros. He captained five Nationals teams and played into his 40s.

“My dad was kind of always a freak athlete,” Tyler said. “He played into his 40s. And he realized that lacrosse was a good platform for him to get him to where he wanted to go, what he needed. If it wasn’t for the game, I don’t think he would be the person he was. It gave him so much, and he just wanted to spread that to other people.”

Though the Haudenosaunee are now an international power, they were still adjusting from box lacrosse to field lacrosse when they first joined the international scene. Lyons said he and Burnam laughed and reminisced often about their early days on the team, especially their trip to Perth, Australia for the Haudenosaunee’s international debut at the 1990 World Lacrosse Championships.

Lyons and Burnam were so close that they had nicknames for each other. They called each other “Jake” and were always busting each other’s chops, Lyons said.

“We were scrappers, we never give up, and we had heart to the moon and back,” Lyons said. “We took on the world, he and I, and we enjoyed every lump, every loss, every win, and everything in between.”

Burnam took much of that spirit into his coaching career, which spanned several decades and from Upstate New York to the Florida Gulf Coast. He was an innovative mind, Lyons said, but always emphasized personal expression.

“His lacrosse IQ was as good as anybody I’ve ever met,” Brad said. “He grew up playing offense, and then he transitioned to defense because the Iroquois Nationals need to play defense. He coached me on offense, but then he took over defense too, just because he knew the game so well and he could draw plays like nothing.”

Burnam moved back to New York from Florida around 2019 and kept busy taking care of Marlene. He was always driving whenever Lyons called him, he said. But after decades of being on the move, Burnam was ready to “finally sit still for a minute,” Lyons said. He was going to build a house in Akwasasne and settle down.

He never started.

Burnam was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s diffuse large cell B lymphoma in May 2024, and despite a period of remission, the cancer returned this spring.

“I think he handled it in a way that was very persistent. I think he was resilient through the whole process and very determined to be with his family,” Hugh said. “And so he underwent many different treatments for his family. So as a result, I think he was able to live here longer than what he would have if it wasn’t for his determination to be with his family and his friends.”

Though Burnam wasn’t able to have a catch with Lyons over his final months, he held a stick at the medicine game on Tuesday. And when it finished, the players gave him the game ball.

“I think Mark was the embodiment of that spirit,” Lyons said. “He just loved that game, and he wanted to be around it in any capacity and did everything in his ability to move it forward and to celebrate it.”

Sports reporter Lindsay Kramer contributed to this report.

 

[FloridaCuse]

 

[FloridaCuse]