Watch Charles Law's Induction Video Here

When the late Charlie Law arrived at Suffolk in 1946, the University athletic history spanned five years, with basketball and baseball teams composed primarily of law students. When he retired as director of athletics 32 years later, Law was credited with building an undergraduate intercollegiate athletic program with consistently competitive and frequently victorious teams.

Born in Patrick, Scotland in 1913, Law grew up in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He graduated from Chelsea High School where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Springfield College, where despite his small stature, he lettered in football, and was on the basketball, lacrosse, and track teams.

During Law’s early years at Suffolk, the athletic program was comprised of baseball and basketball, both of which he coached; soccer and ice hockey; golf, which he also coached, and tennis were added in 1948; and sailing in 1949. Many of his athletes were World War II veterans, frequentlyolder than Law himself.

Lack of facilities never discouraged Law. He took his 1946–47 basketball nomads to the Charlestown YMCA; from 1947–57, to the West End House on Blossom Street; and finally to the Cambridge YMCA, which served as a home court for Suffolk basketball until the opening of the Regan Gymnasium in 1991. Law’s baseball squads also had to travel from diamond to diamond throughout the greater Boston area.

Nevertheless, Law’s basketball teams compiled an overall record of 295–258, and his last two squads qualified for the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament. The 1974–75 team, 19–7, reached the regional finals, and the 1975–76 quintet, with a 19–6 record, was ranked fifteenth nationally in its division. Law was elected president of the New England Basketball Coaches Association in 1972, and three years later, he received the Association’s highest award, the Doggie Julian Memorial Trophy, for his contributions to the sport.