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Jim Cotter received appreciation before coaching his final football game for BC High in 2004. (Jon Mahoney for The Boston Globe)

Jim Cotter; coach was role model at BC High
By Bryan Marquard
Globe Staff  / July 21, 2010  
 
Some statistics in Jim Cotter’s life are easy to cite, such as his hall of fame record of 236-149-17 as coach of the Boston College High School football team. He would be the first to suggest, however, that his lasting impact was more difficult to quantify.
    
“I really believe in helping people,’’ he said at the end of “A True Man for Others,’’ the 2009 autobiography he wrote with assistance from Paul Kenney. “If my legacy is one thing, it is all the kids I helped at BC High, as a counselor and a coach. I tried to help people. I tried to give them the opportunity to become a little better than maybe they thought they could be.’’

Coach and guidance counselor, father figure and friend to young men at BC High from 1960 to 2004, he inspired them anew the past four years since being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Mr. Cotter died yesterday in his Quincy home of complications from ALS. He was 73.

“He affected thousands,’’ said Steve Hughes, the BC High principal who played football for Mr. Cotter, took his history class, and served as his coaching assistant.

“In some ways, what he left was a role model to aspire to,’’ Hughes said. “Whenever he saw somebody in need, he tried to help. Whenever he was in the position to help somebody, he did. It’s not really a complicated philosophy of life, but it’s a hard one to live up to.’’

Hughes added: “Sometimes I think it’s unfortunate that he was such a good coach. Hey, he was great with the X’s and O’s, and his coaching spoke for itself, but the importance of Jim Cotter was not on the football field. The importance of Jim was how he helped people all throughout their lives.’’

Nevertheless, Mr. Cotter’s coaching left a trail of accomplishments few could match. He coached the Eagles to two Division 1 Super Bowl titles, in 1977 and 2000. Many who passed through his program played football in college, and several made it into the National Football League.

In 1994, he received the Distinguished American Award from the Eastern Massachusetts chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, an honor given annually to former football players who apply lessons learned on the field to service in their communities.

Two years earlier, the Association of New England Football Officials gave Mr. Cotter the Mark T. Crehan Coaches Award, the organization’s highest honor. He also is a member of the Massachusetts High School Coaches Hall of Fame.

Mr. Cotter appreciated the accolades, but did not dwell on coaching exploits. In 1999, when he became the 23d coach in state history to win 200 games, he was low key as his players gathered after the victory.

“Thanks for a great effort,’’ he told them. “I’m glad that’s over with. Let’s get on with things.’’
    
Born in Boston, the oldest of three sons, Mr. Cotter grew up in Savin Hill. Part of him never left.

“He was larger than life in some respects, and yet the most humble, grounded guy you’d ever meet,’’ said his daughter Grace Cotter Regan of West Roxbury. “His favorite line of advice to any of us is: ‘You can never forget where you came from; you have to remember your roots,’ and his roots were very much in Savin Hill. He was a Dorchester guy.’’

“As far as I was concerned, it was a great place to grow up,’’ Mr. Cotter wrote of his Savin Hill childhood. “I got a PhD in human nature.’’

At his parents’ behest, he joined his elementary school band and learned to play clarinet, though he preferred singing, and earned money from summer jobs by the time he was 14.

“My parents never paid a nickel for me to go to BC High,’’ he wrote. “I paid my own tuition; I think it was $180 a year.’’

He played football at BC High, from which he graduated in 1955, and also was on the team at Boston College, where he studied business, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1959. He married Ann Grace of Savin Hill a couple of weeks after finishing college and completed training for a six-year commitment to the National Guard.

With candor that surprised few who knew Mr. Cotter, he detailed in his autobiography his anguish and anger as his wife struggled with depression and alcoholism and died in 1983.

The following year, he married Agnes Donahue,  who also grew up in Dorchester.

“It was one of those things I knew was right,’’ he wrote of his second marriage.

Mr. Cotter spent a year in the insurance business after college, then he heard that an assistant football coach position was opening up at BC High, which hired him in 1960. He became head coach four years later.

Jon Bartlett, athletic director at BC High, recalled that when playing, “if you had to do something, you had to do it right, even if it took two or three times.’’

“I think everyone wanted to make sure they didn’t disappoint him, on the field and off the field,’’ Bartlett said.

Mr. Cotter made quite an impression, and  former students and players stepped  up to repay their debts after he became ill.

“He always gave to everybody and never asked for anything in return,’’ said his son, Mike of Wrentham. “And when he was in need, no one had to ask; everyone was there.’’

“Mr. Cotter was my coach, guidance counselor, mentor, and friend,’’ said state Representative Garrett Bradley, a Hingham Democrat. “He taught me how to live like a man and, in the last few years as he struggled with this terrible disease, he showed me how to die like one, as well.’’ Rather than flaunt coaching statistics, Mr. Cotter preferred to talk about his getting-students-into-college record, which he said was nearly perfect.

“He remained in contact with so many of his former students and players and counselees, and he helped them all through their lives, whether it was giving advice or listening to them when their lives took a tough turn or making a phone call or writing a letter or making a call to another alumni,’’ Hughes said. “You remained in Jim’s life forever if you played for him.’’

In addition to his wife, daughter, and son, Mr. Cotter leaves another daughter, Kelly of Monument, Colo.; brothers Don of Foxborough and Frank of Savin Hill; and six grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in Boston College High School. Burial will be in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester.