Air Force Football
Ken Hatfield hired DeBerry in 1980 as the Air Force Academy quarterbacks coach. The next year, DeBerry was promoted to offensive coordinator. By 1982, Air Force posted an 8-5 record and beat Vanderbilt in the Hall of Fame Bowl while averaging 30.4 points per game. After the 1983 season, Hatfield left Air Force for Arkansas after the Falcons' 10-2 season and Independence Bowl victory. DeBerry was promoted to head coach.
During DeBerry's tenure as head coach, Air Force won at least eight games 11 different seasons. DeBerry's first team, in 1984, was 8–4 and beat Virginia Tech in the 1984 Independence Bowl. The next year, the Falcons won 12 games, and were ranked as high as #4 nationally until a 28–21 loss at BYU. In the final Associated Press poll, the Falcons ranked eighth. DeBerry has coached the Falcons to three conference championships, winning the Western Athletic Conference championship in 1985, 1995, and 1998. The 1998 team's 12–1 record completed the first back-to-back 10-win seasons in school history, and finished the season ranked 10th nationally.
DeBerry's Falcons have dominated the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy series with arch rivals Army and Navy. Air Force has won the trophy 14 times and shared it once in DeBerry's 21 seasons. He is a combined 34–8 against the Black Knights and Midshipmen and is the winningest coach in service academy history. Since the Commander-in-Chief's series began in 1972, Air Force has gone to 16 bowl games, compared to a combined 13 for Army and Navy. DeBerry has led the Academy to 12 of those bowl games and has a 6–6 record.
Although DeBerry has been portrayed a role-model for most of his career, he came under fire for controversial racial remarks made he made in October 2005 after a 48–10 loss to Texas Christian University (TCU). DeBerry said TCU "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did. Afro-American kids can run very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well." Earlier that year, DeBerry had been criticized for a banner posted in the team's locker room that was interpreted by some as inappropriate religious proselytizing.
On December 15, 2006, DeBerry announced his retirement. He now splits his retirement time between South Carolina and Oklahoma, where he owns homes.
Read more about this topic: Fisher De Berry
Famous quotes containing the words air, force and/or football:
“Mothers of America
let your kids go to the movies!
get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up to
it’s true that fresh air is good for the body
but what about the soul
that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images”
—Frank O’Hara (1926–1966)
“Only a fully trained Jedi knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his emperor. If you end your training now—if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did—you will become an agent of evil.”
—Leigh Brackett (1915–1978)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)