Villanova Univeristy Athletics

There are few individuals who have had a greater impact on the Villanova football program during their lives than Lou Ferry, who was a standout tackle for the Wildcats from 1945-48 and later held several coaching positions spanning more than 40 years. He was the head coach from 1971-73 and the interim head coach for three games in 1974. Ferry remained on Villanova’s staff until his death in January 2004. A veteran of eight seasons in the NFL, Ferry spent a total of 44 years associated with Wildcats football in some way. He graduated from Villanova in 1949 and was inducted to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1978.
 
Ferry played both offensive and defensive tackle during his playing career under Hall of Fame coach Jordan Olivar. He was a part of teams that went 24-13-2 (.641) during his career, and as a senior in 1948 he helped the Wildcats post an 8-2-1 record and notch the first bowl game win in program history with a 27-7 victory over Nevada in the Harbor Bowl in San Diego. It was the second time in as many years that Villanova reached a bowl game, as it previously fell to Kentucky by a 24-14 margin in the Great Lakes Bowl in Cleveland at the end of the 1947 campaign.
 
In his final two seasons on the active roster Ferry helped the Wildcats outscore their opposition by an average margin of 10.4 points per game. He was the team captain as a senior in 1948, a two-time All-East selection during his career and went on to be selected by the Green Bay Packers with the 25^th overall pick in the third round of the 1949 NFL Draft.
 
Ferry spent two seasons with the Packers in 1949 and 1950 before moving on to play for the Chicago Cardinals (1951) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (1952-56). He was a veteran of 71 games played in the NFL and made 51 career starts. One of his highlights came on October 26, 1952 while playing for the Steelers when he recovered a fumble and returned it 71 yards for a touchdown in 1 34-28 win over his former Cardinals team. Ferry had seven career fumble recoveries with one touchdown and one safety during his NFL career.
 
In 1960, Ferry returned to Villanova to be a line coach on Alex Bell’s staff. For the better part of the next four-plus decades, he never left. Ferry served as a line coach under both Bell and later John Gregory for 10 seasons before being elevated to head coach, a role he would serve in for four seasons. Villanova went 9-2 in Ferry’s first year as head coach in 1970, its most wins in a single season since 1896. The season opened with a 21-3 road win at Maryland and also featured notable road victories over Delaware, Buffalo, Navy and Temple. The team’s success carried over to 1971 when Ferry guided the squad to a 6-4-1 mark and road wins over Maryland, Xavier and Dayton. Senior wide receiver Mike Siani was named a first team All-American by both Sport Magazine and The Sporting News following the 1971 season.
 
Ferry was the Wildcats head coach through the end of the 1973 campaign and for the final three games in 1974. He officially rejoined the coaching staff in 1975 and was employed by Villanova for the rest of his life. When football was dropped after the 1980 season, Ferry remained on campus as the assistant director of intramurals. He resumed his coaching duties on Andy Talley’s staff when football was reinstated in 1985.
 
One of several future NFL players that Ferry coached was all-time great Howie Long who was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. Long noted that Ferry “was like a father to me.” Other standouts that Ferry coached were Al Atkinson (1962-64) who played in the NFL for the New York Jets and Mike Siani (1969-71) who played for the Oakland Raiders, as did Long. Later in his career Ferry mentored Willie Oshodin (1989-91) who played for the Denver Broncos and Jason Tenner (1995-98) who played for the San Francisco 49ers. In all, nearly two dozen players that Ferry coached during his years as head coach went on to be inducted to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
 
Villanova began a new tradition in 1994 when it inducted its first group of all-time greats onto the Wall of Fame in Villanova Stadium. The ceremony took place at halftime of the Delaware game and Ferry was part of that first Wall of Fame class alongside Siani and others. Long followed in 1995, and Atkinson in 1997.
 
In his early life Ferry was a member of the football, basketball and track teams at St. James High School in Chester. He was mentored by one of his teachers, Fr. O’Connor, who suggested that Villanova would be the right place for Ferry. O’Connor would later become Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York. Ferry passed away on January 25, 2004 at the age of 76. Until his hospitalization in the months leading up to his death, he had been a daily fixture on the Villanova campus.