Rick Forzano

Rick Forzano (born November 20, 1928) was a football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels, most prominently as head coach of the National Football League's Detroit Lions from 1974-1976.

After seeing his football playing career ended by a high school eye injury, Forzano turned to coaching and earned his first two opportunities at two Akron, Ohio high schools. A 1951 stint at Kenmore High School was followed one year later by a season at Hower High School. In 1953, he was promoted to head coach at Hower, where he stayed three seasons and compiled a 10-14-1 record.

In 1956, he moved on for one year as an assistant at the College of Wooster before spending two seasons in the same capacity at Kent State University. In 1959, he began a five-year stretch as an assistant with the U.S. Naval Academy, helping recruit quarterback Roger Staubach, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy in 1963.

That success led to his first college head coaching position at the University of Connecticut, where he was 7-10-1 in two years. In 1966, he moved up as an NFL coach with the first of two seasons as the St. Louis Cardinals' offensive backfield coach. Returning to Ohio in 1968, he served one year in that same role as a Cincinnati Bengals assistant under the legendary Paul Brown. On January 15, 1969, he then took the head coaching position at the U.S. Naval Academy.

After putting together a 10-33 record (including three losses to arch-rival Army), Forzano resigned on February 1, 1973. The decision came when he accepted an offer to become an assistant coach position with the Detroit Lions under Don McCafferty, who had worked with him at Kent State in the late 1950s. When McCafferty died suddenly of a heart attack on July 28, 1974, Forzano was named to replace him.

Forzano was known as a strict disciplinarian. However, Forzano was unable to improve the team and resigned on October 4, 1976 after the team lost three of its first four games. Forzano finished his Lions' tenure with a 15-17 record and never returned to coaching, focusing on his own company, Rick Forzano Associates. The company, based in Detroit, served as a manufacturer's representative. In addition to those duties, he also served as a commentator for Big Ten Conference football games.