Near the end of January, the football prodigy became the prodigal son as former New England Patriots assistant coach and Nantucket resident Bill Belichick ’71 returned to New England. His appointment as 14th head coach in Patriots history culminated a monthlong standoff between the New York Jets and the Patriots. During that highly publicized fracas, the former PA football and lacrosse standout resigned as Jets head coach and fought a legal battle to gain the freedom required even to interview for the Patriots job. In many ways the off-field drama imitated the intense competitiveness of the National Football League itself. Even before Belichick arrived in Andover in September 1970 as a postgraduate student, he'd already served a long apprenticeship in what became his chosen profession. He was immersed in football from an early age as the son of former pro football player Steve Belichick, a longtime scout and defensive assistant coach at the U.S. Naval Academy. During those years, Navy was still a national football power, and the budding coach was his father's constant companion at team meetings and practices. Former Navy assistant and Detroit Lions head coach Rich Forzano once told The Boston Globe, "Bill is a genius. At 10 years of age Little Billy, that son a gun, was in there breaking down game films. He had a knack for it. His dad was a great scout, one of the best in the business. I don t think his dad ever pushed Little Billy into it. He just took to it. Billy was always around us, always around his dad, and he just picked it up." Like fellow PA graduates George W. and Jeb Bush, Belichick came into the family business naturally. Not only is Belichick the son of a coach, but his godfather, Bill Edwards, was the longtime head football coach at Wittenberg University in Ohio. And it is no stretch to consider the many assistant coaches and players of the Naval Academy as a sort of extended family who helped guide and instruct the young prodigy. Belichick recalls a childhood during which he encountered a host of coaching legends. "The Naval Academy attracted many great coaches for camps and clinics —men such as Don Shula, Weeb Ewbank, Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry and many others—on a regular basis. It was a wonderful environment," he says. "By the age of 10, I wanted to grow up to be a coach, but I soon shifted my focus to studies." At Annapolis High School Belichick played football and lacrosse and, true to his background, was a dogged competitor who made the most of his ability. Scoring an impressive 700 on the math portion of his college boards, Belichick decided to delay college for a postgraduate year of high school.

Over the years, he explained, he'd observed many players at the Naval Academy who'd benefited greatly from a year in boarding school. It was former PA legend and Naval Academy assistant coach Dick Duden ’43 who extolled the virtues of his alma mater to Belichick. Upon his arrival at PA in fall 1970, it was obvious to many that Belichick possessed an extraordinary talent. Recalls former PA trainer Al Coulthard, "Bill had a real gift for explaining the ins and outs of the game. He and his classmate Ernie Adams ’71 [who later served with Belichick as an assistant coach on the Giants] were better X's and O's men than most college coaches. I loved talking football and all sports with those two." Belichick also remembers those days. "Everyone made me feel welcome as a postgraduate at PA," he says. Noting that coaches and teachers like Steve Sorota, Joe Wennik ’52, Fred Harrison, Paul Kalkstein ’61, Bob Hulburd, Frank "Deke" DiClemente, Al Coulthard and many others were great, he adds, "You couldn't help but learn in such an atmosphere." For fear he'll neglect to mention old friends, Belichick hesitates when asked to name PA teammates. But he relishes the memories of an undefeated 1970 football team and a lacrosse team that fell only to the Brown University junior varsity team. "Andover was quite an adjustment for me academically, but I enjoyed a great experience at a tremendous school and was more than prepared for Wesleyan University," he says. At Wesleyan, Belichick continued playing football and served as co- captain of the lacrosse team while obtaining a degree in economics. Recalls longtime Wesleyan assistant football coach Peter Kostacopolous, "Bill hung in there for four years without ever starting a game. He stood out because of his attitude toward the game, which was very serious." Following graduation his career path was at least partially affected by the advent of Title IX. He had plans to work as an assistant football coach at North Carolina State while pursuing a master's degree there. The newly passed legislation regarding women's collegiate athletics, though, made it necessary for head football coach Lou Holtz to eliminate the position Belichick was slated to fill. Undeterred from his goal of coaching, Belichick decided to forego graduate school for an unpaid position as a special teams coaching assistant with the Baltimore Colts. In short time, he made a name for himself as a master strategist and ascended the coaching ladder from Baltimore to Detroit to Denver to the New York Giants. There he was reunited with PA friend Ernie Adams on the staff of head coach Bill Parcells. In New York, Belichick created a Super Bowl-winning defense, and in 1991 he was chosen to lead the Cleveland Browns as head coach. Copyright, Phillips Academy, 2000

In Cleveland he revitalized the sleeping giant that was the Browns and in four seasons transformed a 3-13 team into an 11-5 Super Bowl contender. However, in 1995, Belichick was in the wrong place at the wrong time as Browns owner Art Modell decided to do the unthinkable and move the Browns to Baltimore. Modell left his coach to take much of the heat in what turned out to be his final year with the franchise. In 1996, Belichick abandoned the Browns for a reunion with Parcells, then head coach of the Patriots. Becoming the New England squad's defensive master, Belichick once again led his team to the Super Bowl as the Pats faced the Packers in New Orleans. In 1997 he followed Parcells back to New York as defensive coordinator of the Jets. Once again he proved to be a peerless strategist; the Jets made an incredible about-face and nearly made it to their second Super Bowl. His performance made him an automatic candidate for any head coaching position in the National Football League. When Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired head coach Pete Carroll at the end of the 1999 season, New England fans naturally turned their thoughts to Belichick. But his avail- ability came into question after Parcells abruptly quit, triggering a provision in Belichick's contract that automatically promoted him to head coach. With his eyes on the Patriots prize, Belichick promptly resigned the New York slot, launching the controversy that was spelled out in headlines and on TV news. When the principals, their lawyers and the NFL were finished arguing, Kraft was left with a decision: He could have Belichick for the price of a number one draft choice. Kraft ceded the draft pick and signed Belichick, boasting that he was hiring one of the best coaches in the business. "I'm very impressed with his experience," Kraft told a reporter, noting that he would not have assigned full control of the Patriots to Belichick had he not had full confidence in his abilities and his long-term commitment to the team. With the off-field challenge resolved, the newest member of the Friends of Andover Athletics Committee faces the greatest on-field challenge of his career as he seeks to take the Patriots back to the Super Bowl. Richard A. Johnson serves as the curator of the Sports Museum of New England in Boston and is the author of A Century of Boston Sports, Photographs and Memories and co-author with Glenn Stout of Red Sox Century. Both books are slated for publication in fall 2000.