Mark Joseph Speckman (born July 31, 1955) is an American

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

coach and former player. He is the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

for

PennWest Clarion Pennsylvania Western University, Clarion, also known as PennWest Clarion, is a public university campus in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the institution was founded in 1867 and offers ...

Clarion, Pennsylvania Clarion is a borough in and the county seat of Clarion County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north-northeast of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsburgh DMA. Clarion was settled in 1839 and incorporated in 1841. In the past, the sur ...

, a position he has held since 2022. Speckman served as the head football coach at

Willamette University Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

from 1998 to 2011 and at

Menlo College Menlo College is a private college specializing in business and is located in Atherton, California. Campus Menlo College is situated on 45-acre (0.18 km2) campus in Atherton, California, 25 miles southeast of San Francisco and 20 miles nort ...

in 2012. As coach of the

Willamette Bearcats The Willamette Bearcats are the athletic teams of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. Competing at the non-scholarship National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III level, the school fields twenty teams. Most tea ...

, he led his team to three playoff berths at the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

level. He was the running backs coach of the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) in 2013 and 2014 and the offensive coordinator at

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducation ...

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

from 2015 to 2016. A

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

native, he was born without hands and played football at the college level. Speckman also works as a motivational speaker.

Early life

Speckman was born to Don and Jan Speckman.Moore, David Leon
Speckman is small-time coach with big-time message.
''

USA TODAY ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', October 4, 2005. He grew up south of San Francisco, in Belmont, as the second child of four. Born without hands, he wore hooks until the age of 15, earning him the nickname of

Captain Hook Captain James Hook is a fictional character and the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play ''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain ...

. He convinced his parents that the hooks were not needed, and has never used them since. After starring as a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

in high school, Speckman played football for

, a

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

where he was a starter. He then went on to

Azusa Pacific University Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private, evangelical Christian university in Azusa, California. The university was founded in 1899, with classes opening on March 3, 1900, in Whittier, California, and began offering degrees in 1939. The uni ...

, playing at the NAIA level. There he earned an honorable mention for All-American at the NAIA classification in 1976,Canzano, John. The Monday Profile: A Coach’s Coach Mark Speckman: A Mind for Football, a Gift for Inspiration. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', August 25, 2003. and attention from the tabloid media as the Handless Linebacker.

Coaching career

Speckman took up coaching football after his playing career, first at the high school level. His first head coaching gig was at Livingston High School in

Livingston, California Livingston is a city in Merced County, California, United States. Livingston is located west-northwest of Atwater, at an elevation of 131 feet (40 m). According to the 2020 census, the city population was 14,172, up from 13,058 in 2010. Living ...

in 1981, where he introduced the famous Fly offense that is primarily a run-based offense; the

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

and tailback are split behind the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

, while the Fly back runs in motion almost every play. His 1982 Wolfpack squad won a share of the Golden Valley League title, missing the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs by a coin flip. Speckman was picked to coach the 1983 Lions All-Star Football Game, one of many he coached in Central California from the early 1980s into the early 1990s. He left Livingston after two seasons to teach and become the head coach at

Gilroy High School Gilroy High School is a co-educational public school located in Gilroy, California, that serves the city of Gilroy. A part of the Gilroy Unified School District, is one of two public comprehensive high schools in the city and has an approximate ...

Gilroy, California Gilroy is a city in Northern California's Santa Clara County, south of Morgan Hill and north of San Benito County. Gilroy is the southernmost city in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 56,766 as of the 2019 U.S. Census Projection ...

for the 1983 through 1985 seasons. In 1986, Speckman returned to Central California as

Merced High School Merced High School is located in Merced, California, United States. It is a part of the Merced Union High School District. The current enrollment is over 1,800 students in grades 9 through 12. The school is currently under Principal Marcus Knott ...

's football head coach, a position he held for eight seasons. At Merced, he led those teams to six consecutive Central California Conference titles, including quite a few of those where his teams went undefeated in the CCC. In 1990, Speckman's Bears went 14–0 that earned them the mythical state Division I crown. His 1989 and 1990 squads won back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section D-I titles, and played in six section championship games from 1988 to 1993. During his tenure, his teams received numerous state and national rankings. Speckman left Merced after the 1993 season to teach and start the new football program at Golden Valley High School, Merced's second high school. His high school coaching record was 113–48–3. He also worked as a teacher at that time. During 17 years of coaching high school, he also ran a program targeted at helping disadvantaged kids.Anderson, Christopher P
Handless coach motivates others.
''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the U ...

'', April 28, 2005.

Willamette

In 1995, Willamette coach

Dan Hawkins Danny Clarence Hawkins (born November 10, 1960) is an American football coach at UC Davis. A former player and sportscaster, he served as the head football coach at Willamette University (1993–1997), Boise State University (2001–2005), and th ...

hired Speckman to serve as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the Bearcats. Willamette is a small liberal arts college in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

that competes at the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

level. When Hawkins left the school to coach at

Boise State University Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, Willamette hired Speckman to serve as head coach of the team. In 1997, while Speckman was still offensive coordinator,

Liz Heaston Elizabeth Heaston Thompson (born 1977) is an American athlete who is the first woman ever to score in a college football game. She accomplished this feat on October 18, 1997 as a placekicker for the Willamette Bearcats football team of Willamette ...

was one of the teams' kickers, and she became the first female player in college football history. As Willamette's coach, he has implemented the Fly offense. Speckman is considered one of the top experts on that offense. The team has made the playoffs in 1999, 2004, and 2008. After the 1999 season, he was named coach of the year for the Northwest Conference. In 2004, ''

'' named him one of the 25 most influential figures in sports in the state of Oregon, coming in at 24. Speckman was considered as a possible replacement for Tim Walsh in early 2007 before

Jerry Glanville Jerry Michael Glanville (born October 14, 1941) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Alabama Airborne of Major League Football. He played football at Northern Michigan University in the early 1960s, and is a former NASCAR d ...

was hired as the new head coach at

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

. In June 2007, Speckman was inducted into the

San Mateo County, California San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwoo ...

, Sports Hall of Fame, and was a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. In 2008, he led the team to a 10–0 regular season, a ranking as high as fourth in Division III, and a first round playoff win. The team lost in the second round of the playoffs to defending champion Wisconsin-Whitewater 30–27, and finished the year 11–1. Speckman resigned as head coach at Willamette on January 11, 2012.

Personal

Despite having no hands, Speckman does not let this handicap slow him down. He can still write, type, use a cell phone, drive, play

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

and he played the trombone in high school. He uses these aspects of overcoming a handicap in motivational speeches around the state and country. Speckman and his wife, Sue, have three children, Julie, Lisa and Tim.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

Clarion profile

UC Davis profile

Montreal Alouettes profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speckman, Mark 1955 births Living people American disabled sportspeople American football linebackers Azusa Pacific Cougars football players Clarion Golden Eagles football coaches Lawrence Vikings football coaches Menlo Oaks football coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches UC Davis Aggies football coaches Willamette Bearcats football coaches High school football coaches in California Menlo Oaks football players People from Belmont, California Players of American football from San Mateo County, California Coaches of American football from California