Only a handful of collegiate coaches have done what Terry Watkins accomplished during the 2008-09 academic school year - lead two separate teams - men's hockey and men's golf - in two separate sports to an NCAA Division III championship round.

In 2019-20, Watkins will begin his 24th year as the UW-Stout men's varsity hockey coach. Watkins was the Blue Devils' men's golf coach for nine years, three times taking the team to the national tournament. Watkins led the hockey team to the NCAA Division III national tournament in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. The hockey team advanced to the NCAA Division III Frozen Four, falling in overtime in the semi-final game at historic Lake Placid, N.Y., in March, 2009.

The men's golf team, in only their fourth year as a varsity program, finished 12th at the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships and finished 11th at the 2010 NCAA Division III Championships. The 2011 team made Stout's third consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III Championships. The 2012 team scored the best team scores in Blue Devil history, but changes in the NCAA selection process kept Stout home.

Watkins involvement with Stout hockey stretches back almost to the beginning of the program. While Watkins would go on to play for the Blue Devils, he was not a part of the program during the first year. But he was a member of the team that was Stout's first-ever opponent, St. Paul Groveland, a game that was played Jan. 19, 1969, on Lake Menomin on a rink set up in Wolkse Bay. Groveland defeated Stout, 8-4. At the urging of then-adviser to the fledgling hockey program, Ken Erickson, Watkins would return to Stout the following school year - and never left the area.

Watkins, a native of St. Paul, Minn., has spent the last nearly 50 years in Menomonie where he coached the Blue Devil hockey club for eight years before returning the Blue Devils to the varsity level. All told, Watkins will be starting his 31st season as a head hockey coach at Stout. During the 2013-14 season, Watkins was recognized for having been the head coach for more than 700 Blue Devil games.

A three-time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) coach of the year, Watkins has taken the Blue Devils well into the mix of both the WIAC and the seven-team Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA). The 2006-07 Blue Devils put together what was then Stout's best-ever hockey season, finishing with a school record 21 wins and were ranked nationally from Thanksgiving on. Watkins was also named NCHA Coach of the Year and was a national runner up for coach of the year. The 2007-08 team was the first Blue Devil hockey team to advance to the NCAA Division III tournament.

The 2008-09 team exceeded all of the previous years, playing well into March for the first time ever. The team finished with a 23-6-2 overall record, and were second in the NCHA, 10-2-2, but went on to win their first ever NCHA tournament title, thus earning the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Along the way, the Blue Devils had a 15-game unbeaten streak and had four players receive national individual honors.

Watkins' goal is to continue to mold the Blue Devils into a team that will consistently stay in the fight for the upper echelon of the league.

A UW-Stout Hall of Fame inductee, Watkins ranks fourth on the all-time Blue Devil varsity scoring list, tallying 95 points with 41 goals and 54 assists from 1969-73. He ranks second in assists and 11th in goals scored. Watkins holds the single season record for most goals scored by a defenseman, 22 during the 1972-73 season. Watkins has also coached at the youth hockey and high school levels, as well as officiated. Watkins was an assistant coach on the Menomonie High School hockey team that won the Wisconsin state title in 1991.

Watkins literally built the men's golf team from scratch. A regional power in the late 1980s, the golf program was discontinued in the early 1990s.

When Watkins was tabbed as the coach to bring the team back, it was his second time of laying the groundwork to revive a discontinued program and three times (2009, 2010, 2011) took the Blue Devils to the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships, finishing 12th in 2009 and 11th in 2010. Watkins also produced two-time All-American Derek Holmes (2009, 2010) and All-American Josh Grisa (2013).

Watkins, who is a very familiar player in the Chippewa Valley area, has an ear to the ground for Stout's golf tradition - a program that won three consecutive conference titles in the late 1980s. Watkins' two sons, Jeff and Todd, both played for the Blue Devils and Todd was an all-conference performer during the Blue Devils' final season.

Watkins and his wife, Doreen, who was an administrative assistant in the Stout physical education office, but has since retired, have three adult children, Jeff, Todd and Kelly, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren (twice, within four days).

Todd played hockey under his father for four years and is the all-time leading club scorer with 90 goals and 115 assists for 205 points. Todd was also a top performer on the Stout men's golf team, a program that won three consecutive conference titles in the late 1980s. Jeff was the Blue Devils' hockey team's official scorekeeper for nearly two decades and was the Blue Devils' public address announcer. Jeff was also a member of the Blue Devil varsity golf team.

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Terry Watkins' Varsity Hockey Record

Stout left the NCHA after the 2012-13 season

Terry Watkins' UW-Stout Club Record

Terry Watkins' Total Overall Hockey Record

Terry Watkins' Varsity Golf Record

(updated, June 2019)