Joseph Purzycki (born February 20, 1947) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four col ...

Dover, Delaware Dover () is the capital and second-largest city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover, DE, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of ...

from 1981 to 1984 and

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

Harrisonburg, Virginia Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. At the 2 ...

from 1985 to 1990, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coaching record of 55–51–3. Purzycki played college football at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

and was later an assistant coach at his alma mater, where he learned the

Wing T The following is a list of common and historically significant formations in American football. In football, the formation describes how the players in a team are positioned on the field. Many variations are possible on both sides of the ball, d ...

offense from head coach

Tubby Raymond Harold R. "Tubby" Raymond (November 14, 1926 – December 8, 2017) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Delaware from 1966 to 2001, compiling a record of 300–119–3 ...

. When Purzycki was hired as the head football coach at Delaware State in January 1981, he became the first white man appointed to that role for the historically black school. Many students and players had expected Delaware State to hire Billy Joe, an African American who had played professionally in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) and was then an assistant coach for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Some students and players protested Purzycki's hiring.

Head coaching record

College

References

1947 births Living people Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football coaches Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football players Delaware State Hornets football coaches James Madison Dukes football coaches High school football coaches in Delaware High school football coaches in New Jersey Players of American football from Newark, New Jersey {{1980s-collegefootball-coach-stub