Throughout his life, Richard "Dickie" Doe always found a way to stay in the game.
In 1951, Doe graduated from Immaculate Heart Academy, where he excelled in basketball, football and softball. After leaving IHA, he joined the semipro Watertown Red and Black. His tenure with the football team, though, was interrupted in 1952 when he entered the Army.
Doe served in Korea and earned several service awards, including a Bronze Star, before his honorable discharge in 1954, when he helped to reorganize the Red and Black after the team's two-year hiatus.
In 1955, Doe won the first Earl Exley Memorial trophy as the Red and Black's most outstanding ball carrier. His Red and Black playing career continued through the 1960s and early '70s, and he was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 1996.
"As a football player, Dickie was one of the greatest I've ever seen," Doe's former Red and Black teammate, Budgo Alteri, told the Times in 2005. "I blocked for Dickie, who was an outstanding runner. As a matter of fact, I think I've still got his footprints on my back. I couldn't get out in front of him fast enough. Once Dickie got to the sidelines he was gone."
Doe was honored again in 2003 when he entered the Immaculate Heart Academy-Immaculate Heart Central High School Hall of Fame.
An avid golfer, Doe graduated in 1990 from the Irv Schloss Professional Golf Club Repairmen's School in Dunedin, Fla., and owned his own business, Double D's Golf Club Shop.
Doe was instrumental in the creation of the Over the Hill Golf League at Highland Meadows, and the league was eventually renamed the Dick Doe Over the Hill Golf League.
Doe also served for many years as an official for baseball, basketball and football. In 2005, two weeks before his death, he won the Allie Coppola Award, presented by the International Athletics Association Basketball Officials Board 59 for his service to the sport.
He retired from Niagara Mohawk in 1994 after 20 years of service. He also worked for the New York Air Brake.
He died on Feb. 18, 2005, after battling emphysema. He was 72.
