Husky Tracks
Star of the century
They used to call him Century Sid, not because of his
age but because of his ability to run. In his heyday on the Northeastern
football squad, Sidney Watson, BA'56, rushed for more than 100 yards per
game, an accomplishment still unmatched, which earned him a spot in the
Husky athletics Hall of Fame.
After his brilliant college career, Watson went on to become a professional
football player and a legendary college coach. Now after forty years at
Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he coached several sports and
served as athletics director, he's hanging up his cleats.
Watson says he started thinking about retiring only last year, when
he turned sixty-five. "It's hard to walk away when you came to work
five to six days a week for forty years and enjoyed it," he says.
"Not too many people can say that. I'm going to miss it."
Watson, a three-sport star in high school in Andover, Massachusetts,
came to Northeastern on a basketball scholarship. He played one season
on the basketball team, but then other coaches got wind of his athleticism
and drive. He lettered for three years in hockey-a sport he had hardly
played until arriving at N.U. But it was in football that he made his mark,
starring on Northeastern's undefeated 1951 team, being named Little All
America in 1953, and captaining the 1954 team. His seventy-four points
in 1953 remain the most in one season by a Husky.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took notice and had him on the field even before
he graduated. He played three seasons with the Steelers and then moved
to the Washington Redskins for a year. In 1958, despite another chance
to play for the Redskins, Watson took a temporary position as a hockey
coach at Bowdoin. He never left.
Watson coached Bowdoin hockey for twenty-four years and football for
seventeen. His hockey teams won four ECAC Division II championships. He
was named the national Division Coach of the Year three times and the New
England Coach of the Year twice. Watson also chaired the NCAA Hockey Rules
and Tournament Committee for six years. After he became athletics director
in 1983, Watson stressed "lifetime" sports such as swimming,
running, and racquet games. Bowdoin's athletics program grew to twenty-nine
sports during his tenure.
Bowdoin's hockey coach position will be named for Watson permanently
when an endowment, currently being raised, is fully funded. The college
has already raised $135,000 for the Sidney J. Watson Scholarship Fund.
Starting this fall, scholarships will be given to current scholar-athletes
on a need basis.
As a coach, Watson taught that education and athletics should complement
each other rather than compete. It's a lesson his students have learned
well. "The thing I'll miss most is seeing the number of students get
through college," Watson says. "In all the years of coaching,
there were two students who never graduated. One came back to my retirement
party [in May] and said he'll get his degree next month. So that makes
it one."
- Meghan Irons
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