Former W&L and Navy Coach Dick Szlasa Dies at Age 87

A college lacrosse icon has died.

Dick Szlasa, an IMLCA Hall of Fame coach who put Washington and Lee on the map and led Navy to an NCAA championship game in the 1970s, passed away Sunday, current Navy men’s lacrosse coach Joe Amplo informed alumni Monday. He was 87.

“He made a tremendous impact on many of you, this institution and our sport in general,” Amplo wrote in an email. “His memory will live on with Navy Lacrosse.”

Szlasa was the head coach at Navy from 1973-82, leading the Midshipmen to the NCAA tournament in all 10 seasons and the NCAA championship game in 1975. He built on the legacy established by his predecessor, National Lacrosse Hall of Fame coach Willis “Bill” Bilderback, producing Schmeisser Award-winning defenseman Jake Lawlor and Turnbull Award-winning attackman Mike Buzzell.

Both are in the National Hall of Fame as players, as is Szlasa recruit and Navy’s all-time leading scorer Jeff Long.

But Szlasa also laid the foundation for a historic run by W&L, recruiting four future Hall of Famers in Ted Bauer, Skeet Chadwick, Skip Lichtfuss and Tom Keigler. He led the Generals to a 12-3 record and NCAA tournament appearance in 1972 before leaving to take over at Navy, leaving the cupboard quite full for another National Hall of Fame coach in Jack Emmer.

Szlasa amassed a 164-99 record in 21 seasons at Towson (1967), W&L (1968-72), Navy (1973-82) and Drew (1983-87). He was inducted into the IMLCA Hall of Fame in 2017. “I coached lacrosse for almost three decades and it was a great run,” Szlasa told the Annapolis Capital Gazette then. “I was really blessed.”

In 1975, Szlasa led Navy to a 10-5 record and its first NCAA championship game. Six of the Midshipmen’s eight regular-season wins were against teams ranked in the top 10.

The third-ranked Mids opened the NCAA tournament with a decisive 17-6 win over No. 6 Penn before dealing No. 2 Cornell a 15-12 loss in the semifinals. Despite a valiant effort by the Mids, No. 4 Maryland would go on to claim the title behind a 20-13 victory.

Navy did not make it to the NCAA final again until 2004.

“The best victory during my 10 years at Navy had to have been the win over Cornell in the 1975 national semifinals,” Szlasa said in the academy’s announcement of his IMLCA Hall of Fame honor. “Quite honestly, it was because of Jake Lawlor. We had played Cornell earlier in the season and they clobbered us. In that game we put our fastest defender on Eamon McEneaney and Jake on Mike French, both of whom turned out to become hall-of-fame players. Jake came to me a week before the semis and asked to switch the matchups. I wasn't sure we should, but it proved to be the smartest decision and I credit him with winning the game for us.”

Szlasa was named the national coach of the year.

“Dick Szlasa had one of the hardest jobs in lacrosse when he came to coach at Navy,” Lawlor said in 2017. “He arrived during the Vietnam War and at that time, the war and the military were very unpopular. Protests and civil unrest were occurring. As such, we were very happy to get a coach of his caliber to join us at the Naval Academy. He also had the challenge of following the legendary Navy coach Willis Bilderback, which was not an easy task. Dick achieved success immediately and soon became a Navy coaching legend himself.”

Funeral services are Thursday in Westminster, Maryland, where Szlasa lived.