(11-21-07) WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- Potential recruits and high school coaches never stopped calling. Media guide requests from NFL teams kept coming. And as the behind-the-scenes work began to unfold, word began to spread. University of New Haven students, alumni, fans and friends of athletics had all heard the rumors and waited with great interest and excitement to find out whether or not it was true.
On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, they officially got their answer: UNH announced the return of the once-powerful Charger Football team will officially come in 2009, as a member of the Northeast-10 Conference.
With the program slated for a return to competition in less than two years, UNH has already started the hiring process for a head coach and hopes to have a staff in place by the end of the 2007 calendar year. Signing of recruits will begin shortly thereafter, in anticipation of having redshirt players on campus by 2008. If history is any indication, there will likely be no shortage of applicants for either the head coaching position or for slots on the Charger offense, defense and special teams.
"Our campus community and alumni have been waiting for this day to come," said UNH Director of Athletics Deborah Chin. "And they are going to support us in getting our program back to the high level at which we all expect to compete. We never threw anything away. I always knew this day would come, when we'd get into a conference that would allow us to bring football back. UNH knows how to build a winning program, we have been there before."
The apex came in 1997, when UNH advanced to the NCAA Championship game and was, at that time, the smallest in NCAA history to play for a national title. UNH also advanced to the NCAA semifinals in 1992 and the quarterfinals in 1993 and 1995. The Chargers shocked the state and grabbed all the headlines in 1992 when they defeated then-Division I-AA University of Connecticut in the season opener. UNH also defeated I-AA institutions Villanova, Monmouth, Lafayette, and Robert Morris.
Charger Football has a storied tradition of gridiron success, including four NCAA Division II playoff qualifications in the 1990's. The program posts an all-time record of 172-135-5 in 31 seasons, including a 142-87-1 (.620) mark after moving to the Division II level in 1982.
In addition to team success, many individuals in Charger Football history have earned national and regional accolades. UNH had 126 All-New England award winners in 19 seasons between 1983 and 2001, and 63 All-ECAC picks during the same time period.
Perhaps the program's most famous alum is former running back Roger Graham, who won Division II's most prestigious award - the Harlon Hill Trophy - after leading the NCAA in scoring and ranking second in rushing in 1993. In all, he rushed for nearly 6,000 yards during his career. UNH has had a player finish in the top four in the Harlon Hill voting on five occasions. Several players, including Graham, went on to professional football careers. Miles McPherson was the first-ever player drafted out of UNH, and spent four seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Former UNH offensive lineman Harry Boatswain earned a Super Bowl ring while playing for the San Francisco 49ers. So did former head coach Mark Whipple, with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After leaving UNH, Whipple (coach, 1988-93) piloted UMass to a Division I-AA national championship in 1998 and was later quarterbacks coach for the Steelers. Numerous other UNH coaches have gone on to find great success in the professional and college ranks as well. Tony Sparano, who led UNH to the 1997 national championship game and is the program's all-time winningest coach, is currently the Associate Head Coach for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. Chris Palmer (coach, 1986-87) has been an NFL head coach and is currently quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants. Darren Rizzi, a member of the '97 staff who later returned as head coach, is the associate head coach at Rutgers University in the BIG EAST Conference. A number of others have gone on to jobs in high-level college football as well.
UNH has recently made a number of facility improvements to better position itself for future growth, and will continue to raise capital for upgrades planned for the near future. The David A. Beckerman Student Recreation Center, a multi-million dollar student life-enhancement project, is near completion and slated for opening in December. There are also upgrades planned for Charger Gymnasium, the softball field and Frank Vieira Field on North Campus. Earlier this fall, the university opened the newly-resurfaced Kayo Field, which was outfitted with synthetic turf at a cost of over $1 million.
Expect a new generation of Chargers to don the blue and gold and take to the field for practice in 2008. Games start in 2009.
Applications for the head coaching position at UNH are now being accepted, with an emphasis on a successful track record of collegiate coaching. Potential applicants should contact the Department of Athletics at 203-932-7016 or 7017 for more information.
