PHILADELPHIA — Lacrosse family ties don’t end with individuals. They extend to the cities that host this championships weekend.

It’s fitting that Baltimore is called the Charm City and Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. Boston, host for 2008 at Gillette Stadium, already has been adopted. Representatives of all three sites collaborated at the Linc Memorial Day weekend despite their sibling rivalry.

Philadelphia’s entry into the host family came courtesy of Earl Cleghorn. Eight years ago, as a new member of Penn’s athletics administration after a long stint at Temple University, he wasn’t from the lacrosse family. But lacrosse wanted him anyway. He’d never even seen a game, yet he started going to the championships weekend, to Rutgers, and to Maryland.

"I kept saying to myself, boy this is a great event and it’s a well-kept secret, a lot of people don’t know about it," Cleghorn said.

Then he went to Baltimore in 2003. An idea formed.

"When the four institutions in Baltimore (Johns Hopkins, Loyola, Towson and UMBC) decided to host it at Ravens Stadium, the light start going off in my head, saying, you know we’ve got just as nice a stadium here in Philadelphia," he said. "We might not have as rich a heritage in lacrosse as they do in Baltimore, and we don’t pretend to, but it is a fast-growing sport here. So I went back to my boss (Athletics Director Steve Bilsky) and said we ought to think about hosting this."

The attendance records book tells the rest, except for the work involved. Cleghorn said the Penn staff, the Eagles’ and many locals and lacrosse lovers made it happen.

"We (at Penn) have our own jobs and it takes a commitment to do this," he said. "Everyone’s met that commitment and has been energetic about accepting it, moving forward and wanting it to work well."

The approach, he said, is to view it as education for the staff.

"We’ve tried to use it as a development exercise for our institution, for our own lacrosse program and for people who want to come and be a part of that."

Cleghorn said hosting at an off-campus venue pis different from being on campus, but still a huge undertaking.

"Obviously if it’s on campus, you have to do it all yourself," he said. "The Eagles worked with us — they’re the best at facilities when it comes to supplying those needs."

The Eagles handled the ticketing, the ticket brochures and mailing the orders. Plenty was left.

"We had to make sure the operation of the event went well, that the banquet (700 guests) went well. We had to secure the banquet location, the kickoff party location, do the game operations and handle all eight teams."

He pointed out with well-deserved pride that the institutional effort was more concentrated than that of the previous host.

"It’s been one institution sponsoring it," Cleghorn said. "Baltimore had four. Each one had a piece of the action. We’ve had to do the whole thing, so it’s very taxing on the staff."

The Penn associate athletics director said he saw Baltimore and Boston, and anyone else who hosts, not as competitors, but as, well, family.

"We never looked at this as a challenge — as some people may have — between Baltimore and Philadelphia. We looked at it as a good thing for lacrosse and I think it has been," he said.

He said Baltimore was a big part of what made Philadelphia work and representatives from that team were very cooperative, but the Penn crew still had a goal.

"Deep down, we’d say to ourselves, ‘We’d like to beat that attendance record,’ but as far as I’m concerned, I hope Baltimore breaks it next year because three years from now when it comes back — because we will put a bid in — I hope we break it again. The way lacrosse is growing in this country, I assume that could happen."

Many in Baltimore wanted their home to be permanent host. Many others agreed. So for Philadelphia to even get into the mix took a leap of faith from the committee. One member, Towson Athletics Director Wayne Edwards, was part of the Baltimore host coalition. When voting time came, he said he put lacrosse, rather than his institution, first. He voted for Philadelphia.

"I’ve learned to try to look at the overall picture," Edwards said.

As much as he knew the sport needed to branch out, Edwards said he knew Philadelphia wouldn’t have happened had not his city set the tone.

"With all the success that Philadelphia has had, if we hadn’t been successful in Baltimore, it never would have happened here and Boston would never have wanted it," Edwards said between games at the Linc. "I feel very proud of being part of a city and the four schools, who at the time didn’t know it was going to work."

Because in some other sports, it didn’t.

"Soccer had not worked well (in Charlotte’s NFL stadium)," Edwards said. "There was some real question as to whether to award our event to Baltimore and if it had failed, it would have never reached this level. We’d still be on campus. It’d still be a great sport but a regional sport. What we’ve done and Philadelphia has done is turned it into a national sport."

After the event returns to Baltimore next year, it’s Boston’s turn. Cleghorn said Harvard University Athletics Director Bob Scalise was already asking him the same questions Penn and Philadelphia asked Baltimore.

"How big of an operation is it? Well, it doesn’t get much bigger," he said. "It goes over three full days. There are many meetings. We start off the year meeting once a month, then once every two weeks, then once a week, then the last couple of days are very intense.

"Penn’s people did a fantastic job themselves and in getting support from a lot of local Philadelphia groups to make everything work smoothly," said Jon Hind, Division I lacrosse committee chair. "The NCAA’s John Williams and D’Ann Keller did a great job keeping everyone on the same page."

Cleghorn also praised the local lacrosse enthusiast Penn hired specifically to direct the operation.

"A lot of people are involved," he said. "I’ve sat in meetings with 45-50 people. To conduct that meeting with proper order and get the proper mission accomplished isn’t easy. Our point person, Lee Stevens, has been very good with that."

Of course. He’s part of the cities that are part of the family.