Lacrosse coach guided UMBC men to Division II national title

Earl Richard "Dick" Watts Jr., who guided the UMBC men's program to 178 victories in 23 seasons and the NCAA Division II national championship in 1980, the school's final year before making the leap to Division I, died Oct. 26 of heart disease at his home in Naples, Florida. He was 92.

Watts was more than just a lacrosse coach. Kevin Gibbons-O'Neill, who was an attackman for the Retrievers from 1982 to 1985, called Watts "a father figure." Marcie Watts said her husband took great pride in making an impact with his players and preparing them for life after college, but he also lived by the rule "family first."

"A lot of his players said that as tough as he was on the field, when he got home - and the players came to our house a lot - they saw what a family man he was," she said. "Family was No. 1 for him."

At a time when people of color and women were disadvantaged, Watts, the head coach of the UMBC men's program, hired Ronnie Smith, an African-American midfielder who played for the Retrievers, to be an assistant coach of his for 12 years.

Watts also chaired and served on several committees at the local and national levels. He was a member of an NCAA committee that passed Title IX, federal legislation that mandated for equal opportunities in education and sports for women and girls.

For his efforts, Watts was inducted into six Halls of Fame - including those of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association and UMBC - and even had one at Stevenson University named after him.

"He did a lot for the game in Baltimore," said Gibbons-O'Neill, the current assistant athletic director for events and facilities at his alma mater. "He did a lot for the women's game. He hired an African-American in the early 1980s. I don't know too many people in America that are in six different Halls of Fame and have one named after them. ... People recognize how important he was to lacrosse here in Baltimore."

Watts was the youngest of two children born in Baltimore to the former Mildred Provance and Earl Richard Watts Sr., an accountant.

Raised in the Hamilton neighborhood, Watts played baseball, but found his athletic calling as a halfback and linebacker in football at Poly, where he graduated in 1948.

Watts was bitten by the coaching bug when he was recruited to start a recreation league baseball team. Fearing that he would oversleep and miss Saturday morning games, he agreed to tie a string around his toe and hang it out the window for his players to yank and wake him. In 1947, that squad won league and state championships.

Watts continued his football career at Johns Hopkins, where the lacrosse coaching staff recruited him to pick up a long pole and line up as a defenseman.

"It was noticed that he was a pretty aggressive player, and they thought lacrosse might be right up his alley," Marcie Watts said.

After graduating in 1956 with a bachelor's in political science, Watts was hired by Friends School to teach science and serve as the head coach of the wrestling program and an assistant coach for the football and boys lacrosse teams from 1958 to 1962. In June 1960, Watts married the former Jill Boone, and the pair raised two sons.

For one year, Watts dabbled in the insurance business, but returned to education in 1964, choosing to work at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, as the head coach of the men's lacrosse and wrestling programs and an assistant coach for the football team.

After Jill died in September 1966, Watts finished the academic year and returned to Baltimore to work at UMBC as its first athletic director and then its third men's lacrosse head coach in 1971. During his tenure there, Watts helped the university grow to 17 sports and open a 4,000-seat Fieldhouse in 1973 and a 4,500-seat stadium in 1976.

"When he arrived at UMBC, there were a few buildings and a bunch of cornfields," his son David said. "He built that athletic program from nothing."

The former Mary Charlotte Russell met Mr. Watts in May 1968 through a mutual friend and the couple married in February 1970 in Baltimore. Despite a 20-year difference, Mrs. Watts said her husband's charm was undeniable.

"I paid no attention to him at first because he was much older," she said with a laugh. "But then one day, everything just sort of clicked."

In addition to his wife and son, Watts is survived by five more children, Bonnie Hale of Baltimore, Charmaine Flora of Baltimore, Earl Richard Watts III of Baltimore, Allen Watts of Baltimore, and Page Watts Rogers of Ocean City, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.