NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Former Navy men's lacrosse coaching great William "Dinty" Moore has been selected for induction into the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) Hall of Fame it was announced by the organization. Moore, along with Tom Leanos (Drew University) and Bob Shillinglaw (Delaware) make up the inductees for the Class of 2021, who, along with the Class of 2020, will be honored at the IMLCA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Sunday, July 25 at the National Harbor MGM Hotel & Casino in National Harbor, Md.
A lacrosse icon, Moore founded and coached (1927-35) the St. John's College lacrosse team before arriving in Annapolis in 1936 to take over a program that had been coached by George Finlayson for 25 years. Over the next 23 years, Moore's Midshipmen captured at least a share of six Wingate Memorial Championships (1938, '43, '45, '46, '49, '54), including the 1938 squad which finished 7-0.
His 1943 squad won the national title outright with the help of team captain Robert Booze, who established an Academy record for goals in a game with eight in a 20-6 victory over Drexel. That record would hold for better than 70 years before Dave Little broke the mark with a nine-goal performance against Lehigh on March 25, 2017.
In 1945, the Mids shared the Wingate Trophy with archrival Army after battling the Black Knights to a double-overtime 7-7 tie in the season finale. Two-time All-American and team captain Charlie Guy became Navy's first recipient of the Schmeisser Memorial Cup (now known as the William C. Schmeisser Award) in 1945, awarded to the nation's most outstanding defenseman.
Navy responded the following season by reclaiming the Wingate Trophy outright, finishing the 1946 campaign with an 8-2 record. The Mids' only losses came against Johns Hopkins and the Mount Washington Lacrosse Club, however their 12-10 victory over Army led it to the national crown. The newly-established Lt. Col. Jack Turnbull Award was presented to Navy's Stewart McLean in 1946 as the nation's most outstanding attackman.
While James "Lee" Chambers was a plebe on that 1946 championship squad, his contributions earned him First-Team All-America honors. He went on to garner All-America three more times, graduating as just the second player in school history and third overall to earn All-America honors all four years. Captain of the 1949 squad, Chambers led Navy to a perfect 11-0 season; however, the Mids were forced to share the title with Johns Hopkins. The 1949 recipient of the Turnbull Trophy, Chambers' 143 goals scored over four seasons still stands as a Navy record.
After a four year absence from the spotlight, Moore's 1954 squad made winning the national championship appear comparatively simple. The Mids were an offensive juggernaut, outscoring their opponents 154-31 en route to a 10-0 record. Navy allowed three or fewer goals in seven of its 10 games, including opening the season with an 18-0 rout of Washington College. The closest any team would come to the mighty Mids was Maryland, who dropped a five-goal, 12-7 decision to Navy. While the winning may have seemed easy on the field, the coaching took on a new angle -literally - during a mid-season contest with Duke. One of Dinty's own attackmen accidentally hit him on the sideline as players went out of bounds, breaking Moore's leg. Only after Navy dealt the Blue Devils a 17-3 loss was Moore carried to a hospital for treatment. He was confined to a bed for three months and permitted to use a wheelchair only once weekly. From that wheelchair, Moore coached his '54 team to a national title over Army. Ten members of his team were accorded All-America honors, including first-team selection Stanley Swanson, who would become the second Navy player awarded the Schmeisser Cup.
Moore led Navy to three undefeated seasons (1938, 7-0 / 1949, 11-0 / 1954, 10-0) during his 23-year career, with his teams losing only 10 games in his final five seasons. Moore retired after the 1958 season, handing the program over to Willis Bilderback, a fellow IMLCA Hall of Fame member who was part of the inaugural class in 2016. Moore coached 146 All-Americans, including 33 of Navy's 103 first-teamers, while five players won major awards - Schmeisser Memorial Cup (defenseman), Lt. Col. Jack Turnbull Award (attackman), Ens. C. Markland Kelly Award (goalkeeper).
Moore was actively involved in the USILA, ISLCA and USLCA and eventually founded the Lacrosse Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc. in 1961, where he would served as the first president for 10 years. The Lacrosse Foundation was the forerunner of US Lacrosse which was rebranded USA Lacrosse in the spring of 2021.
Dinty Moore passed away in 1987.
Tickets for the Induction Ceremony and the first annual IMLCA Hall of Fame Golf Classic to be held the following day are available on the IMLCA's website.
### Go Navy ###
