Charlton: Tough, old school, but 'a great guy' and a 'legend coach'

Oct. 9—Clem Charlton 1925-2023

On a winter's night many years ago, Clem Charlton was refereeing a college wrestling match at UNM's Johnson Gym. Between periods, one wrestler's coach took loud exception to a scoring decision Charlton had made.

"You can't do that!" the coach bellowed.

"Look at the scoreboard and see," Charlton replied.

Throughout his long coaching career in Albuquerque, Charlton was more intimidating than intimidated.

And yet, there was far more to him than that.

Charlton, Sandia High School's first-ever head football coach, died on Sept. 10 at age 98.

Old school? Two of his former Sandia players, when interviewed, emphatically vouched for that. If his old University of New Mexico teammate and prep coaching rival Bill Gentry wasn't the Old School's headmaster, it was Charlton.

"To be honest, I was scared of the guy," said Marty Watts, who played running back for Charlton's Matadors in 1968-69. "He was not one of those guys who got close with his players."

David Williams, who went on to a long prep coaching career of his own, played quarterback for SHS in the mid-1960s.

"(Charlton) was not a coach that was patting everybody on the back and (saying) 'How's the family?' or 'How are you doing in that algebra class?'" Williams said. "He was not that type of coach."

If not a softer side, though, there was another side.

Jim Ottmann worked for Charlton as a Sandia football assistant and years later had Charlton on his own SHS staff.

"He was kind of a quiet guy, but he was just a great guy," Ottmann said. "We stayed as friends all the way until he passed away."

Not being touchy-feely in an era long past, he said, didn't mean Charlton — or Ottmann — didn't care about their players.

"There's no doubt about it," he said. "We cared. I don't know if it's any different now than it was then, but we cared a lot about the kids. A lot of them are our friends now. That's just the way it was back then."

In a 2021 Journal story, former Matadors quarterback Steve Loy, a teammate of Watts', remembered Charlton with respect and fondness.

Loy had suffered frostbite, damaging his feet, years before his high school career while hiking in the Sandias. With Charlton's support and encouragement, he became the Matadors' starting quarterback in 1969.

Charlton, Loy told the Journal's Steve Virgen, became a lifelong mentor and was a member of Loy's wedding party.

A 1943 Albuquerque High graduate and a World War II veteran, Charlton was a starting end for the New Mexico Lobos in the late '40s. The 1949 Lobos were an APS football coaching cradle, with Charlton, Gentry (Highland, Eldorado) and Myrl Smith (Albuquerque High) on the roster.

After college, Charlton hired on at Highland, coaching wrestling and golf and assisting head football coach Hugh Hackett.

Hackett left to coach track and field at UNM in 1958. Watts believes Charlton applied for the HHS job, though he couldn't be sure. In any case, Highland hired Gentry, who'd been at Monroe Junior High.

That same year, Sandia opened its doors. Charlton got the job.

According to Watts, Charlton compiled a 58-48-3 record in 12 years as Matadors head coach.

His best seasons were 1967 and '68, when SHS went a combined 18-3, beat Gentry's Hornets each of those years and took the Matadors to the big-school title game in 1968 (where they lost to East Side powerhouse Artesia).

Charlton stepped down as football coach and wrestling coach after the 1969 season, taking over as Sandia's athletic director, but continued to coach golf until 1988.

It was not as if Charlton was bereft of state titles. His Highland (1957-58) and Sandia (1960) wrestlers won three; his boys golf teams won six championships — two at Highland, four at Sandia.

As an assistant to Ottmann, Charlton also shared in Sandia's only football state title in 1976. The Mike Carter-led Matadors beat Mayfield, 23-6, for the title.

For years after their coaching days, Ottmann and Charlton played golf together every Thursday. Their weekly game continued until just shortly before Charlton's death — two years short of a century.

"He never smoked or drank," Ottmann said.

In his later years, Ottmann said, Charlton had a handicapped placard that would have allowed him to park close to the clubhouse at golf courses.

"He'd never use it,"Ottmann said. "He'd just say, 'I can walk."

In later years, as well, Watts and Williams discovered a somewhat more genial side of their tough old high school coach.

Watts, marketing director of Albuquerque's ProView Networks, over the years found himself traveling in some of the same circles as Charlton. They developed a collegial relationship, and Watts decided Charlton wasn't so scary after all.

Williams, a former head football coach at Del Norte and Eldorado, served with Charlton on an SHS Athletic Sports Hall of Fame committee.

"It took me that long," Williams said, "to find out he knew my first name."

Williams and Watts both attended Charlton's memorial service. Loy, a highly successful agent who represents golf superstars Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm, flew in to Albuquerque for Charlton's service in his private jet before leaving for the Ryder Cup in Italy.

At that service, Watts and Williams heard Ottmann eulogizing his friend and coaching colleague. They left knowing what they'd actually known all along: this was a man whose life and career were worth celebrating.

Charlton, Watts said, "Was a legend coach."