Watch CSTV's "Like Father, Like Son: The Syracuse Lacrosse Legacy"
3/22/2004 11:53:16 AM | Men's Lacrosse
CSTV: College Sports Television has provided suathletics.com with the video from its feature presentation on Hall of Fame lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Jr. which first aired back in March and has since been shown numerous times on the new cable network that is dedicated solely to college athletics. Windows Media Player is required to view the video.
Click here to watch "Like Father, Like Son: The Syracuse Lacrosse Legacy"
"Like Father, Like Son: The Syracuse Lacrosse Legacy" was produced for College Sports TV's Coach original series. It explores the unique bonds between the father-son coaching duo and their prized pupils, and the lessons taught on the lacrosse field that remained relevant long after the student-athletes' playing days were over. Like Father, Like Son chronicles Roy Simmons Sr.'s special impact on Syracuse players Oren Lyons and Jim Brown, and Roy Simmons Jr.'s efforts to expose his teams to the arts and his unique response to the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland, whose victims included 35 Syracuse students.
Roy Simmons Jr. and his son, current Syracuse assistant coach Roy Simmons III, are interviewed, along with Jim Brown, the former Syracuse football and lacrosse All-America who later became an NFL Hall of Fame player. Others featured in the special are brothers Casey and Ryan Powell, current head coach John Desko, former two-time All-America goalie Oren Lyons and former lacrosse and football star Jim Ridlon.
Roy Simmons Sr., who won two national titles as an All-America lacrosse player at Syracuse, became the Orange head coach in 1931. He compiled a 253-130-1 record (.660) and coached 70 All-Americas and nine players now in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame. His 1957 squad featured All-Americas Roy Simmons Jr. and Jim Brown. Considered by many to be the greatest lacrosse player ever, Brown also won All-America honors in football at Syracuse and later was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Simmons Sr. was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1964 and relinquished the reins to his son Roy Jr. in 1970. Roy Simmons Sr. passed away in 1994.
Roy Simmons Jr. coached the Orange to a record six NCAA titles and 16 straight final four appearances while at the helm from 1971-1998, accumulating a 290-96 record (.751) in the process. He developed 131 All-Americas and coached five National Players of the Year. His 1988-90 squads joined the 1978-80 Johns Hopkins teams as the only winners of three consecutive NCAA championships. He coached at Syracuse for 40 years, first serving as head freshman coach and assistant varsity coach under his father. He was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1992. He also coached his son, Roy Simmons III, at Syracuse.
Here are some excerpts from the interviews:
Jim Brown explaining the impact Roy Simmons Sr. had on him:
"Great men like Roy Simmons, they don't deal with race; they deal with people. They’re above it. It never came up with him, I never felt it with him, and all he did was…treated me as a decent human being. My last year in lacrosse, I played lacrosse just because he was the coach. I wouldn’t have played otherwise."
Roy Simmons Jr., on Jim Brown's favorite coach:
"I can remember Ernie Davis' funeral down in Elmira, and the Cleveland Browns as a team came to the graveyard; and the Syracuse University team came to the graveyard. And after the funeral was over, and the two teams were walking away and Jim Brown was their big star then for the Cleveland Browns, he turned to his teammates and said, 'Guys, I want to introduce you to my favorite coach.' And with that, Paul Brown (Browns coach) stopped, and with that, Ben Schwartzwalder (Syracuse football coach) stopped, and he (Jim Brown) walked right by both of them and brought the Cleveland Browns over to meet my dad. And it embarrassed my dad, but that's how Jim Brown felt about him."
Roy Simmons Jr. discussing his father's role in getting Oren Lyons into Syracuse University:
"Oren had painted some murals on a restaurant downtown on the wall. My dad knew the restaurant and he knew the mural, so he took the Dean of Admissions. My dad said, 'Do you think a guy that could paint like that could ever go to college?' And the Dean of Admissions said, 'Oh hell, he's better than most of the painters we got in school. Well sure, we would take anybody who could paint like that.' My dad said, 'Good, here's his application.'"
Mike Tirico, Syracuse graduate and ESPN sportscaster, on Roy Simmons Jr.'s response to the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, whose passengers included 35 Syracuse students:
"Roy Simmons Jr. decided that the lacrosse team, recognized around the country as the gold standard and the best in the sport, could bring the sport, some lacrosse sticks, some equipment, some smiles to Lockerbie, Scotland, and thus make another attachment in a very positive way."
Roy Simmons Jr., explaining his father's reaction to Roy Jr.'s first national title:
"And he was standing there; the only time I ever saw him cry. And he said 'Thank God that he let me live long enough to see you be a champion.'
