University of Vermont Athletics

Les Leggett Special Inductee - Coach

A 1999 inductee to the Athletic Hall of Fame and longtime swimming and diving coach at UVM, Les Leggett made significant contributions to the departments of athletics and physical education during his 27 years of service to the University of Vermont.

Leggett began his career at UVM in 1962, when he joined the football coaching staff of head coach Bob Clifford. He was part of a star-studded staff that included Ralph LaPointe, Fuzzy Evans, Cy Theobold, John Coons and Denis Lambert. In the fall of 1962, Leggett began the UVM swimming and diving program and coached the team until 1980.

During that time, the measure of success in swimming was success in competition against the other New England land-grant universities. Using that criteria, Leggett was a tremendously successful coach. His Catamount teams posted winning records in 16 of his 17 seasons at the helm, and in the early 1970's the team had consecutive undefeated seasons and a wining streak that approached 30. Leggett proudly remembers that the Cats never lost to New Hampshire during his years of coaching! In 1980, Leggett retired from coaching and concentrated on his duties in the department of physical education as a full-time instructor.

From 1980 to 1990, Leggett had articles published in Athletic Journal, Scholastic Education and Recreation. He also wrote a book titled The Philosophy of Coaching, which was published in English and Japanese.

"Les always understood the value of athletics in education," said Joe Fischer, his longtime friend and the current Director of Physical Education at UVM. "He had a rock-solid philosophy of coaching that was a perfect for UVM, and he always knew what to say and how tot say it in a simple positive manner that made people feel good about themselves."

A 1951 graduate of the University of Maine, where he was a standout football and baseball player, one of Leggett's initial impressions of UVM was not entirely positive. In the second game of his senior season, Leggett's playing career came to an end after suffering an injury playing against Catamounts at Centennial Field. Ironically, his son Jack, the former UVM baseball coach now coaching at Clemson, suffered a season-ending injury in football at Centennial Field at the beginning of his sophomore season at Maine.

After graduating from Maine, Leggett served as head football coach at Old Town High School in Maine before going on to Springfield College, where he earned his doctorate in physical education in 1958. Following short stints as an assistant football coach and head football and baseball coach at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and Portland State College in Portland, Oregon, Leggett began moving east. He served as head coach of football, wrestling and track and field at Adrian College in Michigan from 1960 to 1962.

Leggett is very proud of the fact that all four of his children are in coaching or physical education. Jack, of course, is one of the preeminent college baseball coaches in the country at Clemson and Bill, is the longtime head football and basketball coach at Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol.