Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFB | Still coachin'
Colorful 76-year-old former SU coach Dick MacPherson is as lively as ever - and has an opinion about everything Syracuse
By Matt Levin
Posted: 10/3/07, 10:57 PM EST Section: Sports
|
It's been 15 years since the 76-year-old MacPherson last coached a football game. Seventeen years have passed since MacPherson finished up his celebrated tenure as head coach at Syracuse.
Nevertheless, as he bellows into the microphone for his weekly Syracuse football radio show, MacPherson still seems like the prototypical head coach. He's still loved liked one, too.
MacPherson, or Coach Mac as he's called by all who know him, coached SU football from 1981-1990. He took the program to heights it had not reached since the late 1950s.
The most memorable season came in 1987, when MacPherson led the Orange to an undefeated 11-0-1 record. That year, MacPherson took home the honor of college football's Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award. With that, he cemented himself as a Syracuse legend.
On Saturday, Syracuse will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1987 season at halftime of the West Virginia game at the Carrier Dome.
Now, when MacPherson returns to Syracuse - always during football season - the coach finds he remains a star.
Right now, MacPherson is hosting "Mondays with Mac" at a Red Robin restaurant in Fayetteville. Behind MacPherson's booth, some Syracuse cheerleaders start a chant of "Let's Go Orange," while the SU mascot Otto dances wildly. The veteran coach stays unfazed as he reveals his insight into Orange football.
There's a reason he looks like a natural.
"I just answer questions," MacPherson said. "That's all. You don't know what the questions are, you just be prepared that way. It's nothing I haven't done before when I was a head coach. You just go with the flow."
Throughout the hour-long show, MacPherson responds to callers and restaurant patrons alongside his co-hosts, local radio personality Glenn "Gomez" Adams and SU play-by-play announcer Matt Park.
Be the first to comment on this story