Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | Akron, Ohio, U.S. | March 4, 1935
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
Football | |
1959 | Akron (assistant) |
1961–1962 | Heidelberg (assistant) |
1963–1965 | Cornell (assistant) |
1966–1970 | Wooster |
1971–1974 | Marshall |
Baseball | |
1961–1963 | Heidelberg |
Lacrosse | |
1968–1970 | Wooster |
Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
1978–1980 | Louisville (associate/acting AD) |
1980–1983 | Missouri (associate AD) |
1983–1986 | Fresno State |
1986–1988 | Missouri |
1988–2001 | Navy |
2002 | Temple (interim AD) |
2002–2003 | Eastern Kentucky (interim AD) |
2004–2005 | Colorado (interim AD) |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 33–54 (football) 26–22 (baseball) 10–11 (lacrosse) |
Jack Robert Lengyel (born March 4, 1935) is an American software executive and former college football coach, college lacrosse coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the College of Wooster from 1966 to 1970 and at Marshall University from 1971 until 1974, compiling a career college football record of 33–54. At Marshall, he took over the Thundering Herd football program after the Southern Airways Flight 932 plane crash that killed nearly the entire team in 1970. Lengyel was the athletic director at California State University, Fresno from 1983 to 1986, at the University of Missouri from 1986 to 1988, and at the United States Naval Academy from 1988 to 2001. He served as the interim athletic director at Temple University in 2002, at Eastern Kentucky University from 2002 to 2003, and at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2004 to 2005.
Lengyel's family name means "Polish" in Hungarian. He graduated from The University of Akron where he was an assistant coach in 1959, and was a member of the Lone Star Fraternity (Pi Kappa Epsilon). In 1962, he earned a Master of Education degree from Kent State University. He was an assistant coach at Heidelberg College (1961–1962) and Cornell University (1963–1965) [1] before becoming head football coach at the College of Wooster in 1966. At Wooster, Lengyel transformed a team that was 0–9 to winning consecutive games. He also coached lacrosse at Wooster for three seasons, from 1968 to 1970. [2]
Lengyel was hired by athletic director Joe McMullen after head coach Rick Tolley was killed along with 37 players and 37 coaches and administrators of Marshall in a plane crash on November 14, 1970. [3] He was selected for the job after it was rejected by a Penn State assistant and an assistant from Georgia Tech turned it down. [4] When Lengyel arrived at Marshall he was forced to recruit athletes from other sports (baseball and basketball) as well as allow a large number of walk-ons in order to rebuild the devastated football program. Although the team struggled in Lengyel's first season at the helm, it managed to defeat Xavier 15–13, scoring a touchdown on the final play of the game. His overall record at Marshall as the head coach was 9–33.
After leaving Marshall, Lengyel went into the private sector before returning to sports as associate director of athletics at the University of Louisville from 1978 to 1980 and the University of Missouri from 1980 to 1983. He then went to California State University, Fresno as director of athletics from 1983 to 1986. He returned to University of Missouri to become their athletic director from 1986 to 1988.
In 1988, he became the athletic director at the United States Naval Academy, where he served for 14 years before retiring in 2001. He received the 2005 John L. Toner Award from the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame for his service at Navy. [5] Since retiring from Navy in 2001, he has also been the interim director of athletics at Temple University, Eastern Kentucky University, and most recently University of Colorado.
Lengyel also served many years on the board of trustees for the Foundation of the United States Naval Academy. [6] He is currently the vice president of business development for XOS Digital, a sports media and technology company.
On January 12, 2008, seven members of a high school basketball team from Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada and their coach's wife were killed in a highway crash when the 15-seat van they were traveling in collided with a tractor-trailer while returning from a game in Moncton in snowy conditions. Drawing similarities between the two tragedies, on March 13, 2008, Jack Lengyel funded his own traveling expenses to New Brunswick, Canada to assist in counseling the grieving community.
Lengyel went on record with the Canadian Press stating that schools should not be transporting students in small, multi-passenger vans. The New Brunswick government announced soon after the crash that it was suspending the use of the vans.
In 2019, Lengyel was named to the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame's 150th Anniversary Team of Excellence. [7]
In the 2006 film We Are Marshall , based on the Marshall plane crash and Marshall's 1971 team, Lengyel was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey.
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wooster Fighting Scots (Ohio Athletic Conference)(1966–1970) | |||||||||
1966 | Wooster | 1–8 | 1–5 | 12th | |||||
1967 | Wooster | 6–3 | 5–1 | T–2nd | |||||
1968 | Wooster | 6–3 | 5–2 | T–4th | |||||
1969 | Wooster | 3–6 | 3–4 | T–9th | |||||
1970 | Wooster | 7–2 | 5–1 | T–3rd | |||||
Wooster: | 24–21 | 19–13 | |||||||
Marshall Thundering Herd (NCAA University Division / Division I independent)(1971–1974) | |||||||||
1971 | Marshall | 2–8 | |||||||
1972 | Marshall | 2–8 | |||||||
1973 | Marshall | 4–7 | |||||||
1974 | Marshall | 1–10 | |||||||
Marshall: | 9–33 | ||||||||
Total: | 33–54 |
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wooster Fighting Scots ()(1967–1969) | |||||||||
1967 | Wooster | 7–1 | |||||||
1968 | Wooster | 1–5 | |||||||
1969 | Wooster | 2–5 | |||||||
Wooster: | 10–11 (.476) | 10–11 (.476) | |||||||
Total: | 10–11 (.476) |
Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969. From its creation, the college has been a co-educational institution. It enrolls about 2,000 students and is a member of The Five Colleges of Ohio, Great Lakes Colleges Association, and the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities.
We Are Marshall is a 2006 American biographical sports drama film directed by McG. It depicts the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people: 37 players of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, five coaches, two athletic trainers, the athletic director, 25 boosters, and the airplane crew of five.
The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America's young people." It was founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, longtime Army Black Knights football coach Earl Blaik and journalist Grantland Rice.
Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered Southern Airways Douglas DC-9 domestic United States commercial jet flight from Stallings Field (ISO) in Kinston, North Carolina, to Huntington Tri-State Airport/Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS) near Kenova and Ceredo, West Virginia. At 7:36 pm on November 14, 1970, the aircraft crashed into a hill just short of the Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 people on board in what has been recognized as "the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. history".
George Clayton Stapleton was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator.
Rickey Dale Tolley was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Marshall University during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. He died in the 1970 plane crash that killed all of the crew and passengers, including most of the Marshall football team and coaching staff and several team boosters.
The Akron Zips football team is a college football program representing the University of Akron in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Akron plays its home games on InfoCision Stadium on the campus of the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. The Zips compete in the Mid-American Conference as a member of the East Division.
Dick Bestwick was an American football coach, scout, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the University of Virginia from 1976 to 1981, compiling a record of 16–49–1. A native of Grove City, Pennsylvania, he played college football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating from the school in 1952. Bestwick received his Masters in Education from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to his tenure at Virginia, Bestwick spent 1954 to 1962 as a high school football coach at three different schools including his alma mater, Grove City High School, and 1967 to 1975 as an assistant coach at Georgia Institute of Technology. Bestwick was hired as the head football coach at Marshall University in 1971 after the 1970 plane crash that took the lives of most of the university's football team and coaching staff. He left the position after two days on the job and returned to Georgia Tech.
Donald Newton Dedmon was an American academic administrator and communications consultant.
Joe H. McMullen was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He serve as the head football coach at Stetson University from 1950 to 1951, Washington & Jefferson College from 1952 to 1953, the University of Akron from 1954 to 1960, and San Jose State University from 1969 to 1970, compiling a career head coaching record of 58–46–5.
The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are members of the NCAA Division I. The school's official colors are kelly green and white. The Marshall Thundering Herd have won 3 NCAA national championships and one NAIA national championship.
Marshall University: Ashes to Glory is a 2000 documentary film about the November 14, 1970 Marshall University plane crash that killed 75 people, and the efforts of new head coach Jack Lengyel and the coaching staff, to rebuild the team and help heal the city of Huntington, West Virginia.
James L. Dennison is a former American football and baseball coach and college athletics administrator. On November 11, 2012, Dennison retired as the head football coach at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. He had held that position since February 11, 1994, the year before the school's football team began play in 1995. From 1973 to 1985, Dennison was the head football coach at the University of Akron. He was also the head baseball coach at Akron in 1966. Dennison served as the athletic director at Akron (1986–1993) and Walsh (1993–2007). He played college football and college baseball at the College of Wooster, from which he graduated in 1960.
William Alfred "Red" Dawson is a former American football player and assistant coach for Marshall University. He was nicknamed "Red" for his red hair.
Thomas James Hamilton was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and naval aviator who rose to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy. He was the head coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1934 to 1936 and again from 1946 to 1947 and at the University of Pittsburgh in 1951 and 1954, compiling a career college football record of 28–32–1.
The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. The team represents the university as a member of the Sun Belt Conference East Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, playing at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level.
John Lewis "Stub" Brickels was a high school, college and professional football coach who served as a backfield coach for the Cleveland Browns between 1946 and 1948. Brickels began his coaching career in 1930, after graduating from Wittenberg University in Ohio, where he was a standout as a halfback on the school's football team. He coached high school football and basketball teams in Ohio and West Virginia in the 1930s and early 1940s before becoming the head basketball coach at the West Virginia University in 1944. He held that post until 1945, when Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown hired him to recruit players for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference, while Brown served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
The 1971 Marshall Thundering Herd football team represented Marshall University as an independent during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. Led by first-year head coach Jack Lengyel, the Thundering Herd compiled a record of 2–8. Nate Ruffin was the team captain. Marshall played home games at Fairfield Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia.
The 1970 Wichita Shockers football team was an American football team that represented Wichita State University as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference during the 1970 NCAA University Division football season. The team compiled a 0–9 record, finished last out of five teams in the MVC, and was outscored by a total of 381 to 99. The team played its home games at Cessna Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.