Charlie Titus has been known to joke that “I came with the bricks” – a lighthearted way of noting that he arrived at UMass Boston in 1974, just as UMB was leaving its temporary home in Park Square and moving into the red-brick buildings of the Columbia Point campus.
Though Charlie’s wry metaphor is a good one, I believe it may be even more apt to think of the pioneering athletics leader as the mortar that helped to bind a new campus together – and bound UMass Boston to its neighbors in Dorchester, Roxbury, South Boston and beyond.
A native of the Columbia Point (now Harbor Point) housing complex and a basketball star at Boston Technical High School and in college, Coach Titus (later to become Vice Chancellor Titus) instinctively understood that UMass Boston needed to have its welcome mat prominently displayed for all members of the local community – particularly kids. He recognized that sports could be the vehicle for forging lasting connections. Many future UMass Boston students first came to campus as participants in a camp or youth sports program.
At the end of the month, this legendary figure in the history of UMass Boston – and the UMass system – will retire, leaving behind a legacy that includes six NCAA Division III Track and Field National Championships, having more than 150 student-athletes earn All-America honors in 12 sports, serving as UMB’s first director of athletics and playing a key role in establishing the Sport Leadership and Administration program and securing a $5 million gift from New Balance to support an endowed chair for the program.
For more than four decades, Charlie Titus has served as a leader, a mentor … and an inspiration.
Charlie will be remembered as a builder – of bridges and bonds. In other words, as a bricks and mortar guy. Thank you, Coach, for standing tall for UMass Boston.
###