The course of Tufts athletics history was changed forever in the quaint conference area in Halligan Hall nearly eight years ago on a sunny afternoon in June. From the outset of the family's vacation, one of their myriad road trips up and down the East Coast, the Grosses shuttled back and forth between their black 1998 Toyota Sienna minivan and collegiate meeting rooms, breaking from this standardized routine only for the obligatory tour or information session. The majority of schools were nice but unimpressive.
If the father, the mother, the recruit, the younger brother and the coach had somehow managed to sneak a glimpse of impending destiny, they would have understood what is now obvious: The future of the men's squash program sat together in that room.
Seven years of recruiting were accomplished in a single afternoon. And no one had a clue.
Blazing the trail
You have to forgive senior Alex Gross if he wants to stake claim to this story; it's only natural for the younger sibling to hold on to the smallest of victories. After all, it's a running joke in this tight-knit family that whatever Jake Gross (LA '08) does, Alex will soon follow. Except, Alex insists, in this one instance. This time, he was the trailblazer.
After the Gross family once again piled into the minivan following their recruiting meeting with men's squash coach Doug Eng (E '84), the 14-year-old Alex, typically content to sit in the car and watch seasons of "Family Guy" on a portable DVD player rather than endure another mind-numbing campus tour, had made a decision to attend Tufts, far before his 17-year-old brother ever made a commitment.
"The family always talked about each school we had visited and the next one coming up, and when they told me Tufts was near a big city and had its own campus, I started liking it more and more," Alex said. "I was trying to be a part of the process, so when my brother was choosing schools, I only thought it was fair that I got to choose mine. The record will show that he was actually following my choice."
For years, their actions followed a recognizable pattern: Jake first, then Alex. The former went to high school at the Potomac School in Virginia; the latter attended as well. They joined the same fraternity. During their junior years at Tufts, they both studied abroad in Australia, Jake in Sydney and Alex in Melbourne. Even the college choice, from a purely chronological standpoint, fell into a similar mold. Except, depending on who you ask, that might not have been what actually happened.
Maybe he just wanted to be included. Maybe it was because a coach actually paid attention to an eighth grader and chatted with him about soccer. Or maybe he felt an inexplicable connection with the lush campus. Whatever the reason, the wheels of fortune were turning that day in that conference room and, as Alex is quick to point out to anyone who inquires, he — not Jake — cast the first spin.
"Jake wasn't at the point where he wanted to make a commitment one way or the other," their father, Michael Gross, said. "Alex said Tufts was clearly the best of all those schools, and that was where he was going to end up. They've given each other a hard time over the years, that Alex actually chose Tufts before Jake chose Tufts."
Closing chapters
This weekend, when Alex finally wraps up competition in the CSA Individual Tournament at Dartmouth, the concluding sentence of a seemingly endless chapter will be written. Jake's decision to enroll in Tufts in 2004 catalyzed a seven-year tradition of domination atop the men's squash ladder. For seven seasons, one Gross brother competed in the No. 1 spot for Eng in every single competition, a staggering statistic that spans, according to Eng's unofficial records, nearly 150 matches.
"It just is remarkable that there's no way Doug could have known," Michael Gross said. "He was competing with Brown and Colby for Jake, and he didn't know where Jake was inclined to go, and he certainly had no idea that this younger brother, that wasn't on his radar screen at all, would end up here, too. He ended up, in one fell swoop, recruiting his number one player for seven years."
It's not just that the Gross brothers played atop the ladder for such an extended period of time; they independently stamped their unique marks on the program, only overlapping during Alex's freshman and Jake's senior year in 2007-08, in which they frequently coached each other from the sidelines and cherished the one season they had together in college.
"I think it's a common thing up until a point," Jake said, "but once you're out of high school, it's very rare for brothers to attend the same college to play on the same sports teams. It's gotten to the point with Alex and I where it's a little strange."
On the wall in Eng's office — a closet compared to the other spacious offices down the hall — hangs a plaque of the Jumbos' MVPs. Adjacent to the black felt wall, covered with old team pictures and surrounded by the clutter of papers, pictures, CDs, clothes and a half-empty bottle of mouthwash, the engraved plates shimmer with names marking the program's legacy. But the list ends with 2004, probably because if Eng continued to add to the plaque, "Gross" would envelop the rest of the frame.
Alex heads into this weekend with a career mark of 44-47, which, according to statistics produced by Eng, would place him at second all-time. But, true to the implicit quest to always one-up his brother, Alex earned consecutive All-NESCAC First Team honors as a sophomore and junior while accumulating a 5-4 lifetime mark at the CSA Individual Championships.
And then there's Jake, the eternal trend-setter who graduated from Tufts in 2008 as the program's all-time wins leader with 53, a two-time captain and three-time MVP. As a senior, Jake was named to his first All-NESCAC team after finishing the season as the fifth-ranked player in the conference and No. 26 on the national list. Though he reached double-digit wins in each of his four years on the Hill, Jake finished at 17-2 in 2007-08, by far the highest winning percentage of his career, and competed at CSA Individuals as the No. 30 seed alongside his brother.
"He was the fastest player I've ever had, just unbelievably quick, and probably the fastest player in the nation at squash," Eng said. "His standard in terms of athleticism is so rare to get, which is why he's arguably the best athlete at Tufts in the past decade."
The alphabet game
To fully understand the impact the Gross brothers have had at Tufts, you have to return to the origins. Like bills and filibusters, so too were the careers of Alex and Jake Gross birthed on Capitol Hill.
In Washington, a city hardly known as a squash hotbed, the brothers began playing at a local club, ultimately working their way up to the Potomac School, a private high school in McLean, Va., which houses its own on-campus courts.
"They're talented athletes, and the thing that set them apart from a lot of kids was that they love the game so much," said George Washington University squash coach Wendy Lawrence, who taught the Gross brothers at Capitol Hill Day School and eventually served as the women's squash coach for the Potomac School. "They would practice when they weren't having lessons or anything else. They'd just go on the court and be self-motivated, which always set them apart from other kids."
The road trips, like the one that brought the brothers to Tufts, began sometime in Jake's teenage years, when the family loaded into the car and drove to Philadelphia, Princeton or Boston — wherever the tournaments took them. Jake was the seasoned winner, the brother who would eventually claim third place at the U-23 2007 nationals and was, in 2005, ranked second in the country while competing on the United States' U-19 team. Alex was the scrappy other half, the crowd-pleaser whose sprawling returns consistently drew raucous applause.
And somewhere along I-95, before the age of iPods or built-in DVD players, they would invariably break out into the alphabet game or some other playful manifestation of the brotherly rivalry.
"They were always competitive; Alex always hated to lose to Jake in anything," Michael Gross said. "It didn't matter what they were doing — it could be a card game, and Alex would just throw the cards down in anger and stomp off because he hated to lose to Jake."
Bruises aside, the trips provided the perfect opportunity for personal and familial growth. An illustration: Whenever the Grosses went somewhere, be it a museum or a tournament, Alex's mother, Nancy Deck, would always tell him, "You will smile, and you would be happy." The first time Alex took that advice to heart was at the Junior U.S. Open after he was eliminated from competition on Friday morning and Jake continued to play until Sunday afternoon. Frowns were traded in for grins, anger for genuine pride.
"A lot of memories are from those trips, a lot of good times," Alex said. "Whenever you're in a tight minivan with your brother and your parents, a lot of lessons are learned about how to approach winning, approach losing, relationships with your brother, how to interact, how to handle yourself, how to handle losing. The most vivid memories are of me being a little upset and having to keep a smile on my face."
Whether coaching each other on the squash courts, ordering room service back in the hotel room, or playfully slugging each other in the leather captain's chairs, Alex and Jake drew closer to each other, strengthening a bond that remains unbreakable today.
"Wherever I went, he went, and the opposite," Jake said. "It wasn't too different from what you see in the movies — a lot of ‘Get the hell off my side' — but it was a ton of fun at the same time, and it was great because I got to spend a lot of time with him."
Completing the circle
Jake has since moved on from his days in brown and blue, but, like his brother, squash has followed him. He currently serves as a full-time assistant coach for women's and men's squash under Lawrence at George Washington.
Meanwhile, with Alex on the verge of graduation, the Grosses' collective reign atop Tufts' squash program is coming to an end. But that hasn't stopped the relationship forged in the minivan a decade ago from continuing to evolve. The brothers talk on the phone at least once a week these days and, when Individuals rolls around, Jake will be there to watch Alex close out his career.
"I think it's the way it's always been," said Lawrence who, during a 28-minute conversation, compared the brothers to twins, Siamese twins and a married couple all on separate occasions. "They're really, really close. It was always a brotherly competition, but it was never anything but supportive of one another."
This past summer, the two convened on the courts to square off in the championship round of a tournament at their squash club in Washington. After surging out to a 2-0 lead, the second-seeded younger Gross had his top-seeded brother, the one who came within a victory of All-American status, on the ropes.
According to their father, it appeared as though this would be the moment that Jake would finally hand the reins off to Alex. But Jake, after digging deep, barely eked out the five-game victory.
"He was a very supportive big brother, but he would rather die than lose to Alex," Michael Gross said. "There was no way Jake would ever lose to Alex. It'll happen, but it didn't happen that day."
The passing of the torch will have to wait, at least one more day. But that doesn't mean the younger Gross isn't longing for a chance to finally overtake his brother.
"I'm just waiting for next summer to get another chance," Alex said with a laugh.
