Jack Siedlecki
Encyclopedia
Jack "Sid" Siedlecki is an American football
coach. He was a head coach in college football
for 21 years for Worcester Polytechnic Institute
(1988–1992), Amherst College
(1993–1996) and Yale University
(1997–2008). He led his teams to championships in the Ivy League
(Yale in 1999 and 2006), the Freedom Football Conference
(Worcester Tech in 1992), and the New England Small College Athletic Conference
(Amherst in 1996). He was selected as the American Football Coaches Association
District I Coach of the Year after the 2006 season.
. His father, John Siedlecki, was the son of Polish immigrants and served as the head football coach at Johnstown High School
for 20 years and later served as the school's principal.
Jack was the youngest boy in the Siedlecki family and became a three-sport star at Johnstown High School, playing tailback
on the football team, pitcher
on the baseball
team and point guard
on the basketball
team. Siedleck's high school basketball coach later recalled that Siedlecki was not a good shooter, but had great vision as the team's point guard: "He could see things unfold before they happened. Some people are born with that ability to see things. Jack was." The same coach recalled Siedlecki's performance as tailback in a game against future NFL
linebacker, Ted Jornov:
He next attended Union College
in Schenectady, New York
, where he received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in history in 1974. He played at the running back
and linebacker
positions for the Union College football team and also played as a pitcher for the school's baseball team.
(1980), and Lafayette College
(1981–1987). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Albany and later noted that his responsibilities there were unlike any other program: "Everybody who walks out of here is exposed to what it takes to be a college coach." He recalled that the assistants at Albany earned $2,500 to $3,000 a year, and five coaches shared one house for which they paid $225 per month in rent. To support himself, Siedlecki also taught at a local Catholic elementary school, worked as a building supervisor three nights a week and coached junior varsity baseball. After one year at Wagner, Siedlecki spent seven years at Lafayette and served as both defensive and offensive coordinator. Siedlecki and Harvard
head coach Tim Murphy were roommates as assistant coaches at Lafayette.
. In five years at Worcester, Siedlecki compiled a 36–11–1 record. His 1990 team went 8–0–1, and his 1992 team compiled a 9–1 record. The 1992 team also made the school's first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs and won the inaugural title of the Freedom Football Conference
. Siedlecki was chosen as the 1992 AFCA Kodak District I Coach of the Year.
. At the time, he said that he had "a great deal of pride" in the winning program he had built at Worcester but added, "Personally and professionally this is a great opportunity. Amherst is one of the finest schools in the country and it will truly be an honor to work there."
At Amherst, Siedlecki replaced Jim Ostendarp
, who had been the head football coach at Amherst for 32 years. Siedlecki inherited a program that had gone 0–8, 0–7–1, and 1–7 in the three years before he was hired. Siedlecki's defensive coordinator at Amherst, E. J. Mills, later recalled the first practice at Amherst:
reported that "Siedlecki performed miracles at Amherst," turning a program that had won one game in three years into a consistent winner. In four seasons as the head coach of the Amherst Lord Jeffs, Siedlecki compiled a 20–11–1 record. His 1996 team finished with a 7–1 record and won the New England Small College Athletic Conference
championship. He was named the American Football Coaches Association
District I Coach of the Year after the 2006 season.
team. He replaced Carm Cozza, the winningest coach in Ivy League
football history. Yale's football team had finished 2–8 in 1995 and had not had a winning season since 1991 when Siedlecki took over. Siedlecki noted, "I've been at good academic schools. I want to be with the best student athletes. It's fun to coach guys who have that kind of intellect. I like those kinds of guys." At the news conference announcing his hiring, Siedlecki responded to questions suggesting he had been a second choice to Dick Jauron
:
In his first three years as Yale's head coach, Siedlecki turned the program around from a 1–9 record in 1997 to 9–1 and a share of the Ivy League championship in 1999. Siedlecki was named the New England Sports Writer's 1999 Coach of the Year for leading the school's turnaround in football.
In September 2000, Yale became the first college football team to win 800 games. In Siedlecki's 12 years at Yale, his players have been selected as first team All-Ivy League players on 34 occasions.
In 2006, he led Yale to a share of the Ivy League championship after finishing 8–2 (6–1 in conference games); the 2006 team defeated Harvard by a score of 34–13. In 2007, he led Yale to a 9–1 record and was named 2007 New England Coach of the Year by sports writers.
At the end of November 2008, less than a week after a 10–0 loss against Harvard and a 6–4 season record, and amid criticism from students and alumni, Siedlecki announced his retirement from coaching after 12 years at Yale. Siedlecki, who agreed to remain at Yale as an assistant athletic director, said at the time, "In my 12 years at Yale I feel I have always tried to do what is best for Yale football and the student-athletes that our staff has brought here. I feel this is what is best for Yale football at this time." Siedlecki compiled a 70-49 record as Yale's head football coach.
. He stated, "It’s an ideal coaching job at this stage of my career. It’s Division III, it’s a really idyllic place, and it’s going to be a big challenge. They haven’t won the Little Three
in 40 years."
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
coach. He was a head coach in college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
for 21 years for Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
(1988–1992), Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
(1993–1996) and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
(1997–2008). He led his teams to championships in the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
(Yale in 1999 and 2006), the Freedom Football Conference
Freedom Football Conference
The Freedom Football Conference was a college athletic conference that competed in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams were located in New England and New York...
(Worcester Tech in 1992), and the New England Small College Athletic Conference
New England Small College Athletic Conference
The New England Small College Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference, consisting of eleven highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities located in New England and New York...
(Amherst in 1996). He was selected as the American Football Coaches Association
American Football Coaches Association
The American Football Coaches Association is an association of over 11,000 football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "maintain the highest possible standards in football and the profession of...
District I Coach of the Year after the 2006 season.
Early years
Siedlecki was born in 1951 in Johnstown, New YorkJohnstown (city), New York
Johnstown is a city and the county seat of Fulton County in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2000 Census, the city had population of 8,511. Recent estimates put the figure closer to 8,100. The city was named by its founder, Sir William Johnson after his son John Johnson...
. His father, John Siedlecki, was the son of Polish immigrants and served as the head football coach at Johnstown High School
Johnstown High School
Johnstown High School is a high school located at 1 Sir Bills Circle, in Johnstown, New York. The school provides education in grades 9-12, and offers summer school for pupils who fail classes...
for 20 years and later served as the school's principal.
Jack was the youngest boy in the Siedlecki family and became a three-sport star at Johnstown High School, playing tailback
Tailback
Tailback can mean:* Halfback * A line of motor vehicles caught up in traffic congestion; a traffic jam...
on the football team, pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
on the baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team and point guard
Point guard
Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...
on the basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team. Siedleck's high school basketball coach later recalled that Siedlecki was not a good shooter, but had great vision as the team's point guard: "He could see things unfold before they happened. Some people are born with that ability to see things. Jack was." The same coach recalled Siedlecki's performance as tailback in a game against future NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
linebacker, Ted Jornov:
"Jack kept taking these unmerciful poundings from Jornov. He would carry the ball for five yards and Jornov would crunch him. But he'd get up, every time. He must have carried the ball 25 times. That night, Jack Siedlecki showed me what kind of guy he is. He took a physical beating, but he just kept getting up. It was remarkable. ... We won because of Jack. He was the heart and soul of the team."
He next attended Union College
Union College
Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...
in Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
, where he received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in history in 1974. He played at the running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
and linebacker
Linebacker
A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
positions for the Union College football team and also played as a pitcher for the school's baseball team.
Assistant football coach
After graduating from Union College, Siedlecki worked as an assistant football coach for 12 years at the University of Albany (1976–1979), Wagner CollegeWagner College
Wagner College is a private, co-educational, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 total students located atop Grymes Hill in New York City's borough of Staten Island...
(1980), and Lafayette College
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
(1981–1987). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Albany and later noted that his responsibilities there were unlike any other program: "Everybody who walks out of here is exposed to what it takes to be a college coach." He recalled that the assistants at Albany earned $2,500 to $3,000 a year, and five coaches shared one house for which they paid $225 per month in rent. To support himself, Siedlecki also taught at a local Catholic elementary school, worked as a building supervisor three nights a week and coached junior varsity baseball. After one year at Wagner, Siedlecki spent seven years at Lafayette and served as both defensive and offensive coordinator. Siedlecki and Harvard
Harvard Crimson football
The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1873...
head coach Tim Murphy were roommates as assistant coaches at Lafayette.
Worcester Tech
In January 1988, Siedlecki was hired as the head football coach at Worcester Polytechnic InstituteWorcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
. In five years at Worcester, Siedlecki compiled a 36–11–1 record. His 1990 team went 8–0–1, and his 1992 team compiled a 9–1 record. The 1992 team also made the school's first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs and won the inaugural title of the Freedom Football Conference
Freedom Football Conference
The Freedom Football Conference was a college athletic conference that competed in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams were located in New England and New York...
. Siedlecki was chosen as the 1992 AFCA Kodak District I Coach of the Year.
Amherst
In January 1993, Siedleck was hired as the head football coach at Amherst CollegeAmherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
. At the time, he said that he had "a great deal of pride" in the winning program he had built at Worcester but added, "Personally and professionally this is a great opportunity. Amherst is one of the finest schools in the country and it will truly be an honor to work there."
At Amherst, Siedlecki replaced Jim Ostendarp
Jim Ostendarp
James Elmore "Jim" Ostendarp was an American football player and coach. He played professional football for the New York Giants from 1950 to 1951 and the Montreal Alouettes in 1952. He was the head football coach at Amherst College for 33 years from 1959 to 1991...
, who had been the head football coach at Amherst for 32 years. Siedlecki inherited a program that had gone 0–8, 0–7–1, and 1–7 in the three years before he was hired. Siedlecki's defensive coordinator at Amherst, E. J. Mills, later recalled the first practice at Amherst:
"Two of the players came over the hill and down onto the field about five seconds after the rest of the team had lined up. Jack just started to shout. He yelled, 'Are you kiddin' me! We're trying to turn this thing around and we've got guys late for practice? We're gonna get it done! We're not gonna tolerate this! No excuses! Hundred-yard sprints! Everybody! Now!' The whole team started running; they ran and ran and ran. They must've done about 25 or 30 sprints in a row. I don't think anybody was ever late after that. Jack Siedlecki's legend at Amherst was established on that first day."The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that "Siedlecki performed miracles at Amherst," turning a program that had won one game in three years into a consistent winner. In four seasons as the head coach of the Amherst Lord Jeffs, Siedlecki compiled a 20–11–1 record. His 1996 team finished with a 7–1 record and won the New England Small College Athletic Conference
New England Small College Athletic Conference
The New England Small College Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference, consisting of eleven highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities located in New England and New York...
championship. He was named the American Football Coaches Association
American Football Coaches Association
The American Football Coaches Association is an association of over 11,000 football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "maintain the highest possible standards in football and the profession of...
District I Coach of the Year after the 2006 season.
Yale
In December 1996, Siedlecki was hired as the 32nd head coach of the Yale Bulldogs footballYale Bulldogs football
The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1872...
team. He replaced Carm Cozza, the winningest coach in Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
football history. Yale's football team had finished 2–8 in 1995 and had not had a winning season since 1991 when Siedlecki took over. Siedlecki noted, "I've been at good academic schools. I want to be with the best student athletes. It's fun to coach guys who have that kind of intellect. I like those kinds of guys." At the news conference announcing his hiring, Siedlecki responded to questions suggesting he had been a second choice to Dick Jauron
Dick Jauron
Richard Manuel Jauron is the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He was the head coach for the Buffalo Bills from 2006 until November 2009. Jauron has previously held head coaching positions with the Chicago Bears and, on an interim basis, with the...
:
"Whenever jobs like this open, very good people get involved. I feel tremendously important to be standing here today. Maybe I'm the last guy standing I don't care. I'm the new head coach at Yale."
In his first three years as Yale's head coach, Siedlecki turned the program around from a 1–9 record in 1997 to 9–1 and a share of the Ivy League championship in 1999. Siedlecki was named the New England Sports Writer's 1999 Coach of the Year for leading the school's turnaround in football.
In September 2000, Yale became the first college football team to win 800 games. In Siedlecki's 12 years at Yale, his players have been selected as first team All-Ivy League players on 34 occasions.
In 2006, he led Yale to a share of the Ivy League championship after finishing 8–2 (6–1 in conference games); the 2006 team defeated Harvard by a score of 34–13. In 2007, he led Yale to a 9–1 record and was named 2007 New England Coach of the Year by sports writers.
At the end of November 2008, less than a week after a 10–0 loss against Harvard and a 6–4 season record, and amid criticism from students and alumni, Siedlecki announced his retirement from coaching after 12 years at Yale. Siedlecki, who agreed to remain at Yale as an assistant athletic director, said at the time, "In my 12 years at Yale I feel I have always tried to do what is best for Yale football and the student-athletes that our staff has brought here. I feel this is what is best for Yale football at this time." Siedlecki compiled a 70-49 record as Yale's head football coach.
Wesleyan
In the summer of 2010, Siedlecki decided to come out of retirement to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
. He stated, "It’s an ideal coaching job at this stage of my career. It’s Division III, it’s a really idyllic place, and it’s going to be a big challenge. They haven’t won the Little Three
Little Three
The "Little Three" is an unofficial athletic conference of three elite liberal arts colleges in New England, United States. The "Little Three" are:* Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts* Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut...
in 40 years."