Roy Simmons Jr. needs no introduction — his name is as synonymous with the sport of lacrosse as any in its history.
Simmons and his father, Roy Simmons Sr., led the Syracuse men’s lacrosse program for 68 consecutive years. Combined, the Simmons family won more than 540 college lacrosse games, building a dynasty in upstate New York.
Simmons, now 85, has watched the sport grow for more than seven decades — from when he shadowed his father at Syracuse to now being one of the Orange’s biggest fans at the Carrier Dome.
Not surprisingly, the college lacrosse legend has a knack for storytelling. When you talk to Simmons, you get a crash course in the sport’s history, both good and bad. When Simmons speaks, you listen.
That’s exactly what his former player, Paul Carcaterra, did in Season 4, Episode 5 of the “Overtime” podcast. Carcaterra was an All-American midfielder under Simmons and a member of Syracuse’s 1995 NCAA championship team.
For 90 minutes, Simmons shared stories from his beginnings in the sport in the 1950s to his hopeful attempts to get into the Carrier Dome once the university allowed fans to attend games once again in late February.
Simmons walked listeners through his experiences with National Lacrosse Hall of Famer and NFL legend Jim Brown, who starred on Syracuse’s lacrosse team from 1953-57. He and Brown were teammates on the Orange offense, but it was the latter that garnered the most attention from opposing defense — mostly for the color of his skin.
“He would come down the field with the ball and the defensive players would shout racist slurs at him, trying to get him to fight and get thrown out of the game,” Simmons said. “My white ears heard what his Black ears heard and it was pretty nasty. What he would do if somebody threw a racist slur at him and he had the ball, he wouldn’t fight. He would just take the ball, go to the cage and score.”
Brown wasn’t always so resilient, Simmons said. During his freshman year, he entertained the idea of leaving school and heading back home to Georgia. (Brown was raised by his grandmother on St. Simons Island, though his rise to athletic stardom started at Manhasset High School on Long Island.)
“My dad sat him down and talked to him like the father he never had and encouraged him to stay, that things would get better and he could make things better,” Simmons said. “He would be respected and admired if he played the game he knew.”
And so Brown continued playing lacrosse, becoming a two-time All-American in the sport before his historic NFL career. Today, Brown credits Roy Simmons Sr. with helping kickstart his professional sports career.
After Simmons finished his own playing career, he coached the Syracuse freshman team for 11 years. At the same time, he explored his interest in art, traveling to Africa, South America and Europe to find inspiration — hoping to make money to provide for his family.
“I had a picture with my arm around a llama at Machu Picchu with a Syracuse lacrosse shirt on,” Simmons joked during the podcast. “I sent it to Lacrosse Magazine saying I was recruiting in Peru.”
Eventually, Simmons took over the Syracuse program from his father in 1971. In 28 seasons with the Orange, he won six NCAA titles (the 1990 championship was later vacated) and 290 games.
Along the way, he recruited and developed some of the best players in the history of the sport, including the Gait brothers and two of the Powell brothers.
For Paul and Gary Gait, the recruiting effort came about by chance.
The Canadian men’s national team was headed to the 1978 world championship, but under country tradition, it had to play in front of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Coach Bob Allen called Simmons, as his Syracuse team was the closest high-level team to the Canadian border.
Simmons gathered up group of players to compete against the Canadian national team, allowing Allen to fulfill the country’s wishes before heading off the world championship.
“You know what?” Allen told Simmons. “I owe you one.”
“You’re Canadian,” Simmons said in jest. “What are you going to do for me?”
Years later, Simmons got a call from Allen, telling him about a set of identical twins from British Columbia. Allen spoke with the brothers about the Syracuse program, and Simmons traveled to New Brunswick to meet the Gaits for the first time at a box game.
Paul and Gary Gait visited Syracuse soon after, and the rest is history. In their four seasons, the Orange won three NCAA championships (including the vacated 1990 title) and Simmons’ coaching career reached legendary status.
With so much success, Simmons Jr. became accustomed to meeting dignitaries, both foreign and domestic. His ability to influence young men at Syracuse helped open him and his program up to opportunities unforeseen in lacrosse.
Simmons made multiple trips to the White House as coach at Syracuse, but it was a meeting with then-Vice President Joe Biden, a Syracuse Law graduate, that stood out. After the Orange won the 2009 NCAA title, Biden invited the team to dinner as his residence.
As part of the trip, Biden offered to take the team to the West Wing — not open to the public — and past the Oval Office. The team had previously been told that President Barack Obama was busy, so Simmons did not expect what came next.
Standing next to the Oval Office, Simmons saw that Obama was, in fact, busy talking to foreign dignitaries. However, Biden was determined to have the president meet the team.
“Biden had the whole team, 50-plus players in the hallway, and he walked into the Oval Office and told the president who he had in the hallway,” Simmons remembered. “Could he just take a few minutes off to come say hello to us? The president, being very gracious, did that. He met everyone in the hallway. Everyone got a chance to shake his hand and we gave him a jersey.”
Simmons’ life has been full of such culturally rich experiences. In addition to being one of the most successful coaches in the history of the sport, he’s one of the most interesting — with a story that’s long and winding.
It’s not finished yet.