- 11 Coaches To Be Inducted in Inaugural Event -
The Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) has announced its inaugural Hall of Fame class, with former head men's lacrosse coach, Fred Acee, being selected to the inaugural list of inductees. The IMLCA inaugural Hall of Fame Induction Celebration will take place Saturday, May 28.
Acee coached at Farmingdale State from 1966-1997, being seen on the sidelines for the lacrosse, soccer and tennis teams during those years. He was inducted into the Farmingdale State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
The inductees are:
Fred Acee (Farmingdale State and Air Force)
Jim "Ace" Adams (Army, Penn, and Virginia)
Willis Bilderback (Navy)
Dick Edell (Baltimore, Army, and Maryland)
Jack Emmer (Cortland, Washington & Lee, and Army)
Richard F. Garber (Massachusetts)
Richie Moran (Cornell)
Robert (Bob) H. Scott (Johns Hopkins)
Roy Simmons, Jr. (Syracuse)
Richard Speckmann (Nassau)
Dave Urick (Hobart and Georgetown)
The inductees were selected by the IMLCA Hall of Fame Committee comprised of Tom Gill, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (chair), Fred Acee (Air Force), Guy Van Arsdale (Jacksonville), Mike Murphy (Colgate), Dan Sheehan (LeMoyne), Tom Leanos (Drew).
"The IMLCA Hall of Fame will be the most important program the IMLCA has initiated as we honor those men who paved the way for all the current coaches to enjoy the game as we do," said Richie Meade, chair of the IMLCA Hall of Fame Ceremony Committee and head coach at Furman. "This will be an event that the lacrosse community and many former players of these outstanding men will come together to honor them as coaches, mentors and educators."
Ticket and location information will be released later this month.
Meet the inductees:
Fred Acee (Farmingdale and Air Force, pictured right) holds a career record of 350-223-1 retired from the United States Air Force Academy at the end of the 2009 season. Prior to taking over as the Air Force head coach, Acee, a 1963 graduate of Cortland State, spent 30 years as the lacrosse coach at SUNY-Farmingdale (now Farmingdale State), leading the Rams to three NJCAA championships and 25 Final Fours. Acee was also named the NJCAA Coach of the Year on four occasions (1977, 1981, 1987 and 1997).
Jim "Ace" Adams (Army, Penn and Virginia) became the head coach of the Army lacrosse team at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, after its previous head coach, F. Morris Touchstone, died of a heart attack. Adams coached the lacrosse team from 1958 to 1969. He was the head coach at Penn from 1970 to 1978 where he led the Quakers to the school's first two NCAA appearances (1975 and 1977). He remains Penn's second-winningest coach by win percentage (.600). He left Penn in 1978 to become Virginia's head coach where he remained until he retired in 1992. During his tenure there, he led the Cavaliers to 12 NCAA tournament appearances and four semifinals appearances, while they twice finished as runners-up. At the time of his retirement from coaching in 1992, he had the most wins of any active Division I lacrosse coach.
Willis Bilderback (Navy) whose Naval Academy lacrosse teams won eight consecutive national titles between 1959 and 1966, died in 1990 at the age of 81. In 14 years as Navy's head coach, he led his teams to a 132-26-2 record and remains the winningest Division I coach (by percentage) in NCAA history. He coached five undefeated teams before retiring for health reasons in 1972. His teams from 1959 to 1972 won or shared nine Intercollegiate Championships, including eight straight, and became the first to win four straight National Championships.
Dick Edell (Baltimore, Army and Maryland) retired with 282 wins, the fifth-winningest all-time head coach in terms of wins, and the sixth-winningest active head coach in terms of winning percentage. He also was the second-winningest active head coach by wins, behind Jack Emmer, of Army with 289. Edell had the second-most NCAA Division I tournament appearances, with 17, behind Roy Simmons Jr. of Syracuse who had 18. He was the seventh head coach to reach the 400-game benchmark and the first ACC head coach to reach the 150-win benchmark. The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) twice named Edell the F. Morris Touchstone Award as the National Coach of the Year: in 1978 with Army and in 1995 with Maryland.
Jack Emmer (Cortland, Washington & Lee and Army) retired in 2005 with 326 wins, making him, at the time, the lacrosse coach with the most wins in NCAA history. In 1970, Emmer coached Cortland State to a 32-6 record in three seasons before taking over as head coach at Washington and Lee in 1973. Emmer led Washington and Lee to ten NCAA tournaments. In 1984, he moved to the United States Military Academy to take over the Army lacrosse team. At West Point, he led the Black Knights to eight NCAA tournament appearances, which set a school record for a head coach. In 2003, Emmer broke the NCAA record for wins by a coach, and received the Howdy Myers Man of the Year Award.
Richard "Dick" Garber (Massachusetts) coached at UMass from 1955-90 where he compiled a 300-142-3 overall record in 36 seasons and retired as the then winningest coach in college lacrosse history. Garber led UMass to nine NCAA Tournament appearances and 13 New England Championships. He coached 80 All-America selections, 105 All-New England selections, and 40 North-South Game participants. He was a three-time USILA Coach of the Year (1969, 1976 and 1989) and 14-time New England Coach of the Year.
Richard "Richie" Moran (Cornell) served as the Big Red head coach from 1969-97. During his 29-year tenure, he compiled an overall record of 257-121 and a 124-50 mark in Ivy League competition. He led Cornell to NCAA championships in 1971, 1976, and 1977, and runner-up finishes in 1978, 1987, and 1988. His teams competed in the NCAA tournament 14 times, and won 15 Ivy championships, with 11 undefeated Ivy seasons. From 1976 to 1978, Cornell won 42 consecutive games, which is an NCAA Division I lacrosse record. He received the F. Morris Touchstone Award as the Division 1 National Coach of the Year three times (1971, 1977, and 1987). He also was named the USILA Man of the Year in 1975.
Robert (Bob) H. Scott (Johns Hopkins) spent 20 years as the Blue Jay lacrosse coach and 22 as the Director of Athletics. During his tenure as lacrosse coach he guided Hopkins to seven national championships, including the school's first NCAA Championship in his final season on the sideline in 1974, and 42 times his players earned first-team All-America recognition. Scott compiled an impressive seven national championships and 158-55-1 overall record during his career. Coach Scott received the F. Morris Touchstone Award as the Division I National Coach of the Year three times (1965, 1968 and 1972).
Roy D. Simmons Jr. (Syracuse) was the head coach of the Syracuse Orange from 1971 to 1998. Simmons' teams won six NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships and appeared in the national semifinals 16 consecutive seasons. Syracuse reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1979 and in 1980, the Orange reached the NCAA semifinals of the before losing to Johns Hopkins, their furthest advancement in the event to that point under the leadership of Simmons. Simmons was named the coach of the year in Division I, claiming the F. Morris Touchstone Award. Simmons remained the head coach of the Syracuse lacrosse team through 1998 when he retired with a 290–96 record, and had a streak of reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in 16 consecutive seasons.
Richard Speckmann (Nassau) retired from Nassau Community College after completing his 40th season at the helm of the lacrosse program. In 40 years as the Head Coach of the Lions his teams participated in 39 of the 40 NJCAA championships and won a record 20 National Championships. Coach Speckmann compiled a won-lost record of 477-158-1 during his tenure.
Dave Urick (Hobart and Georgetown) guided Hobart to 10 straight NCAA Division III Championships (1980-1989). Urick became the Hobart head coach in 1980, and that same year won the Francis "Babe" Kraus Award as Division III Coach of the Year, an honor he would receive again in 1981. In 1987 Urick won his eighth-straight Division III title, surpassing UCLA's John Wooden for most consecutive championships in a team sport. In 1989, after winning the 10th NCAA title, he went on to become head coach at Georgetown. In July 2012, he stepped down from his 23-year tenure as head coach of the Hoya's where he brought the program to national prominence and established GU as one of the elite lacrosse programs in the country. Under his direction, the Hoyas finished with winning records in 21 of 23 seasons-- the only winning seasons in the program's 37-year history of Division I competition.
About The IMLCA
The IMLCA was created to help build the game of lacrosse, become the premier organization providing coaches development and monitor the integrity of the game. Its membership is comprised of individual men's coaches. To further expose its value, the IMLCA has created relationships with the high school, junior college and collegiate club lacrosse coaches so that they too can benefit from the initiatives of the Association.
For more information:
Phil Buttafuoco, Executive Director, IMLCA
508-737-3026
pbuttafuoco@lacrossecoaches.org
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