Dick Watts, a National Lacrosse Hall of Famer who coached UMBC to its lone national championship in any team sport, has died. The university announced Tuesday that it was mourning the loss of its first athletics director and men’s lacrosse coach. Watts was 92.

Watts led the Retrievers to the 1980 NCAA Division II championship, the high point of a 23-year coaching career in which he amassed 178 wins. He was also a two-time All-American defenseman at Johns Hopkins.

As an administrator, Watts essentially built UMBC’s intercollegiate athletics program, overseeing the construction of facilities and ushering the Retrievers during a successful Division II era. UMBC men’s lacrosse moved to Division I in 1981 and the rest of the teams followed suit in 1987. Watts also spent 23 years at Stevenson as the university’s director of physical education.

“He was a huge influence in many of our lives,” said Joe Gold, who played for Watts at UMBC and was a member of the 1980 national championship team. “As hard-nosed and Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi type as you think he was, he had a heart of gold. He was amazing as a person.”

Gold noted Watts’ significant influence at UMBC and within the greater lacrosse community.

“My freshman year we played in the playoffs,” Gold said. “My sophomore year we lost in the championship game and my junior year, we won it. My senior year was the very first NCAA Division I team. None of that was promised to us when we got there. He was a big force in that happening at UMBC and I think that gets overlooked. He was a strategy and a vision guy and had a huge impact in the Baltimore Metro area.”

“He was a true Hall of Fame coach at UMBC, especially when he won the Division II national championship,” said Bill Tanton, legendary sportswriter for The Baltimore Evening Sun, longtime columnist for Lacrosse Magazine, and a men’s lacrosse official for many years. “He was a tough coach on the sideline, I can tell you from experience. I officiated some of his games and Dick was quick to battle for his players. He was a tough guy.”

Watts was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2008 as a truly great contributor, a nod also to his service as a member of the Lacrosse Foundation Board of Directors (1977-80 and 1984-86), the USILA president (1974-75) and as a member of the USILA’s executive board (1967-94). He is a past president of the US Lacrosse Greater Baltimore Chapter and chaired the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee from 1981-86.

UMBC celebrated the 40th anniversary of its NCAA title last spring.

Brian Logue and Paul Ohanian contributed to this report.