As head lacrosse coach at Nassau Community College since 1971, Richard Speckmann '67 has directed his teams to 17 national championshps - including the 2000 title - and has been a five-time National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Coach of the Year. Under Speckmann's leadership, Nassau has a 361-112-1 record with more than 100 All-American players who have gone on to excel in the NCAA ranks. He has twice served as president of the NJCAA Coaches Association. In 1992, Speckmann was elected to the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He has been a sought-after lacrosse clinician nationally.
Speckmann's contributions to Nassau athletics include serving as a widely respected assistant football coach and offensive coordinator from 1968-98. During that span, Nassau gridiron units won more than 240 games and captured six conference crowns and seven bowl game titles. In 1982, he attained the rank of full professor in Nassau's Community College's Physical Education Department. He chaired the institution's Personnel and Budget Committees for a number of years. Held in esteem as a "master teacher," Speckmann has taught a variety of activities in both the service and major programs on campus.
A native of Oceanside, N.Y., Speckmann attended Oceanside High School before matriculating to SUNY Cortland, where he captured a trio of varsity letters in both football and lacrosse. In the mid-1960's under new football coach Roger Robinson, the Red Dragons became the most dominant small college program in Upstate New York with Speckmann sharing time at quarterback. Between 1964-66, Cortland won 21 of 26 games and never lost a home contest. Speckmann's last-minute 36-yard touchdown pass helped Cortland defeat C.W. Post in 1964, when a season finale loss to Montclair spoiled an 8-0 record and a trip to the Tangerine Bowl. In 1965, Speckmann was the holder when teammate Bill Shear kicked a 61-yard field goal - the first 60-plus yard field goal at any level in organized football.
Speckmann, an ECAC Player of the Week, captained the football squad as a senior. He also competed as a lacrosse midfielder at Cortland when the Red Dragon program began its national ascent with victories over squads like Syracuse University. Speckmann earned his bachelor's degree from Cortland in 1967 and a master's degree in physical education from Ball State University in 1968, when he joined the Nassau Staff.
A basketball official since 1988, he and his wife, Sharon, reside in Massapequa Park, N.Y. They have four daughters: Kim, Danielle, Kerry and Lauren.
