For the first time in history, the University of Massachusetts Boston Men’s Basketball program will be hiring a new coach. Charlie Titus, the current head coach and a member of the Little East Conference Hall of Fame, has decided to hang up his whistle after 39 successful years. 
As a Coach, Titus doesn’t have too much hardware. In fact, he has only reached the NCAA Tournament once since 1983. In the 2006 season, Coach Titus and his son, Andre, were able to team up and lead the Beacons to their first and only Little East Conference Championship and gain an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. For Titus, that year was his most memorable of all his 39 seasons.
“Being able to coach my son, and winning an LEC Championship with him as our point guard in 2006, with him being named MVP, that was unbelievable,” Titus said in December. “That was a storybook, once in a lifetime kind of thing. That will stay with me.”
Similar to Coach Titus, the Championship season is extremely sentimental for Andre. “After everything he did for the LEC […] I wanted to make sure he had that on his record,” said Andre. “When we won the championship, I threw the ball straight up in the air and I ran over to my pops and jumped into his arms […] That moment encapsulated everything.”
That win is just another piece of Titus’ legacy.
Interestingly enough, when Andre was first selecting colleges, he was extremely hesitant to commit to his father’s program. “I thought I had a chance to play at a higher level, but my Pops wanted me to play for him,” said Andre. “I had some trepidation for playing for my father […] I knew he wasn’t going to give me any favoritism. If anything he was going to be hard on me.” Ultimately the stars aligned and the talented point guard committed to his father’s team.
Andre didn’t actually play for his father until his sophomore year. In his freshman season. The late Coach Rodney Hughes led the Beacons and had a big impact on the younger Titus. “Coach Hughes stressed in me that while everyone knew who I was, he wanted to make sure that I was going to be myself,” said Andre. “He wanted me to act and behave like myself and be comfortable.”
This transition year was extremely helpful for Andre to settle in, set goals, and ultimately mature as a player and an individual.
“When my pops came back my Sophomore year, I had a year under my belt, and I was a lot more comfortable as a young man,” said Andre. “When he came back to coaching, I set a personal goal. I wrote a note to him saying I was going to try and win a championship for him. When he came back that was my focus and the team’s focus for that year.”
During that 2005-06 season the team really rallied behind Coach Titus, making Andre’s dream a reality. The family-oriented environment that Titus introduced helped create an open atmosphere. “We felt like if we were able to keep our core together we could be successful,” said Andre.
“We were all close with one another. On the weekend we would all be together. We really had a family-oriented team and we trusted one another and I think that made it easy to hold one another accountable in games and practice. We had that from day one.”
The team held that unity throughout the rest of the season. Ultimately, Andre was able to reach his goal and raise his father’s first LEC Championship banner in Clark Center. “It was like being a child […] it’s hard to put that feeling into words, but that’s something I knew he wanted and something I wanted really bad. When we got there I felt the love and the release at the same time.” The two made history together.
Some people say that legacy is defined by your record. Well, Coach Titus may be a 300 win member, but his legacy appears to be as a mentor and a father, not just as a coach. “He’s always wanted me to have a set of core values, or a code to live by,” said Andre. “That’s how you establish integrity, that’s what your reputation is based on. I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror every day and be proud of what I see. He taught me that at a very young age.”
Coach Titus doesn’t just treat his son like family, he treats all of his players like family. “Because of what Coach Titus has done for me I am able to give back to the university, and really that is on behalf of Coach Titus,” says Jack Lambert, a former player for the Beacons. “He was a father figure to me. I always felt like he had my back so I felt that same respect and it helped to keep me focused even far from home.” Even current players, like seniors Carl Joseph and Greg Young cite Coach Titus as a key figure in the growth in basketball ability and IQ. “Coach has been a great mentor to me since I arrived at UMass [Boston],” said Joseph.
The next question for UMass Boston is who will replace this historic Coach? One thing is certain, no one can fill his shoes, they can only bring a new pair. In his 39 year tenure, Titus has won the LEC, founded a Basketball program for UMass Boston, received numerous personal accolades and hall of fame enshrinements, and he even helped to establish the Little East Conference. Despite all these great accomplishments his most remarkable feat is his impact on the culture of UMB athletics. He has truly embodied the ideals of being a student and person first and an athlete second. Ultimately, Coach Titus will be remembered as great man. His legacy is taking 39 different groups of boys and transforming them into respectable, accomplished young men. UMass Boston Athletics will forever be in debt to Coach Titus.