Sidney Watson, winning hockey coach at Bowdoin
Sidney J. Watson, a onetime football standout at Northeastern University who went on to become one of the nation's most respected college hockey coaches during a brilliant career at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, died Sunday of a heart attack at his winter home in Naples, Fla. He was 71.
"There has not been a more beloved person in the Bowdoin College community than Sid Watson," said Bowdoin president Barry Mills in a statement. "Sid was a man of great personal strength and character."
Mr. Watson, who also played professional football from 1955 to 1958, is a legend in New England collegiate athletic circles for his coaching career at Bowdoin, which stretched from 1959 to 1983. In 24 seasons, his teams won 326 games.
The Polar Bears won four Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles during that period. Mr. Watson was named national coach of the year three times and was New England coach of the year twice. In all but one of his last 15 seasons, Bowdoin earned a berth in the ECAC playoffs.
In 1983, Mr. Watson became Bowdoin's athletic director, and he chose Terry Meagher, a former All-American at Boston University, as his successor. The two became close friends and Meagher often turned to Mr. Watson for advice. At the end of the 2002-03 season, Meagher, then in his 20th season, surpassed Mr. Watson's 326 wins. He said at the time that it was a bittersweet moment because he considered Mr. Watson to be such an icon.
Mr. Watson retired as athletic director in 1998, though he carried the title of Ashmead White Director of Athletics Emeritus.
Meagher was visiting Mr. Watson Sunday when he collapsed while walking to answer the phone. The two had been talking of Mr. Watson's annual return to Brunswick, where he and Meagher would spend many a summer day playing golf.
Golf was Mr. Watson's sporting passion later in life and his prowess with the clubs again showed that he was an athlete for all seasons. He had shown that years earlier, having attended Northeastern on a scholarship for both football and basketball, only to gravitate also to hockey.
"He was a great football player," said Jack Grinold, the longtime athletic director at Northeastern. "His freshman year, he was a guard-linebacker, then he played fullback the next three years. But once he discovered hockey, that was his love."
Nevertheless, Mr. Watson played 35 games at halfback for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1955-57 before finishing his NFL career with the Washington Redskins in 1958.
Born and raised in Andover, Mr. Watson was a graduate of Punchard High School. He attended Worcester Academy before moving on to Northeastern. He played for NU's undefeated football team of 1951 and earned the nickname "Century Sid" because he averaged 100 yards rushing per game for his career. For years, Mr. Watson owned the season and career scoring records at Northeastern, though his numbers were eventually surpassed. Still, he ranks third in career scoring (191 points), and his 74 points in 1953 is still the fifth best single-season total in school history.
Originally expected to play basketball for Joe Zabilski, who was also the football coach, Mr. Watson wanted to play hockey. "He went to Herb Gallagher, the hockey coach, and the agreement was he had 10 days to prove himself," said Grinold. "If he couldn't make the team, he'd go back to basketball."
It didn't take long for Gallagher to tell Zabilski that Mr. Watson was now a hockey player, and a pretty good one at that. He became an All-New England defenseman.
Mr. Watson was elected to the Northeastern Athletic Hall of Fame, the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2002 he was the inaugural inductee into the Bowdoin College Athletic Hall of Honor. In 2001, Mr. Watson was presented with the Hobey Baker Legend of Hockey Award by the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. The fitness facility building at Bowdoin College is named after him.
Mr. Watson leaves his wife, Henrietta; three sons, Michael, John, and Christopher; two daughters Nancy and Susan; and 11 grandchildren.
