Les Bartley, the winningest coach in National Lacrosse League history, died this morning of colon cancer. He was 51.

fanncup.com   Les Bartley, 51, died Sunday of cancer.

Bartley passed away at his home in St. Catharines, Ont., less than a day after the Toronto Rock, who he led to four NLL Champion's Cups between 1999 and 2003, defeated the Arizona Sting at Air Canada Centre, 19-13, for this year's title.

"It's a deep loss," current Rock coach Terry Sanderson told the Canadian Press. "He was so well-respected by the Rock players he coached.

"It's an awful thing. It's such a brutal disease. This is a big loss."

Bartley will likely be remembered best for a 93-38 regular season record and seven league championships in twelve years of coaching, but he also played a significant role in maintaining peace between NLL owners and players the past few years.

He even won the Executive of the Year award this season for spearheading the acceptance of a three-year collective bargaining agreement last October, as the NLL came perilously close to cancelling this past season.

Bartley's career in the pro ranks began in January 1992, when he took a position as technical advisor with the first-year Buffalo Bandits.

Three games into the season, with the Bandits 0-3, Bartley was installed as head coach, and the team proceeded to win every game the rest of the season, finishing 5-3 and defeating the Philadelphia Wings for the Major Indoor Lacrosse League championship.

The next season, Bartley skippered the Bandits to a perfect 8-0 record and another MILL title, again over the Wings.

The streak finally ended on 19 February 1994 at the hands of the Boston Blazers, 14-10, after 22 victories and more than two full years after the Bandits' previous loss.

Buffalo still managed to reach the MILL championship game that year, but was blasted on home turf by Philadelphia, 26-15.

1996 MILL Program Major Indoor Lacrosse League Les Bartley as head coach of the Buffalo Bandits.

After a subpar 3-5 campaign in 1995, the Bandits bounced back to win the North American Cup in 1996 and reached the championship game again the following year, falling to Rochester.

Bartley jumped to the expansion (Hamilton) Ontario Raiders in the fall of 1997, taking control of the league's first-ever Canadian franchise.

Bartley stocked the Raiders with a collection of all-star players from across Canada who had been unable to play in MILL, which had recently been dissolved and NLL formed in its place.

The Raiders' most experienced player that season was a guy who hadn't even played the year before -- Jim Veltman, who skipped the 1997 season to spend a year in Africa.

Bartley and Veltman were hardly strangers, having been together in Buffalo since the beginning. But "Scoop" had his reservations about joining a new team.

"We had enjoyed a lot of success in Buffalo," Veltman recently told the Toronto Sun. "I was skeptical about how much success Hamilton would have."

The Raiders posted a promising 6-6 record under Bartley's tutilege, missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker, but the team's best day was after the season, when it was purchased and moved to Toronto by a syndicate led by Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL) executive Bill Watters.

In Toronto, the team -- renamed the Toronto Rock -- flourished, winning the regular season title with a 9-3 record and winning the NLL Champion's Cup.

Bartley's troops repeated the feat in 2000, and by now, lacrosse was experiencing a renaissance in Canada, where it had long played second fiddle to hockey amid mismanagement and violence.

In an upset which shocked Toronto's backers, the Rock lost the 2001 Champion's Cup to Philadelphia, 9-8, falling as Wings head coach Tony Resch employed the same defensive tactics which Bartley had worked to perfection with the Rock.

Toronto rebounded, though, claiming the next two championships, over Albany and Rochester, respectively, with Bartley having added the role of general manager to his responsibilities.

After the 2003 season, Bartley coached Canada to the gold medal at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, with the Maple Leaf side posting a perfect 7-0 record.

Deb McAllister   Les Bartley at Bill Burgoyne Arena in St. Catharines in 2004, with unidentified boy. Bartley had just spent a few moments showing the boy how to hold his stick.

Just months after winning the 2003 title, Bartley missed the annual NLL entry draft to get medical treatment for an intestinal blockage, only to be diagnosed with malignant colon cancer.

He immediately took a leave of absence from the Rock, handing over temporary control to his assistant coaches, Ed Comeau and Derek Keenan.

Comeau and Keenan struggled to keep the team competitive, and were replaced midseason by Terry Sanderson -- effectively ending any chance of Bartley returning as Rock coach.

Bartley did return to the team last year as vice president and advisor to team president Brad Watters. A former United Auto Workers contract negotiator, Bartley served as a member of NLL's negotiating committee, helping to reach the league's current CBA.

Bartley made one more appearance behind the bench, guiding Canada to a 17-8 victory over the United States in the Heritage Cup last October.

After the title game loss to Philadelphia, Bartley never again had the opportunity to win the championship at home -- but many of his former players were able to do so yesterday.

"It's a different group of guys, it's a different management, but this whole program is the Rock that Les built," defenseman Dan Ladouceur said after the game. "We're keeping it going in the true Les style -- lots of hard work, never quitting.

"That's what Les would demand out of us and I think we gave that to him today."

Thirteen members of this year's Rock played for Bartley, including eleven who were with the club for Bartley's final game as coach. A quick scan of current rosters shows a Bartley product on just about almost every other NLL team.

Bartley also produced an amazing number of NLL head coaches, with five of the ten teams currently led by one of his former players -- Anaheim (Keenan), Arizona (Bob Hamley), Buffalo (Darris Kilgour), Colorado (Jamie Batley), and Rochester (Paul Day).

Bartley is survived by wife Gloria, son Matt and daughter Laura.

A private memorial service is scheduled for Monday.

Visit sportcares.ca for more information about the Les' Fund Initiative to raise money for cancer research. To make a donation in Les' name to the American Cancer Society, contact Deb McAllister at bandit@lacrosse-network.com.