MacPherson Selected as Patriot Coach

Dick MacPherson, the coach at Syracuse the past 10 seasons and a former NFL assistant, was named today as coach of the New England Patriots, the league’s worst team.

He succeeds Rod Rust, who was fired last Friday after the team went 1-15 in its only season under him.

MacPherson, the Patriots’ third head coach in three years, brings one thing to the team that the last two coaches lacked--a demonstrative personality.

He was hired to restore something else to the franchise--a winning record.

“I want them (the players) to know that when I come here that they are the star of the show,” MacPherson told a news conference at Foxboro Stadium.

Patriots Chief Executive Officer Sam Jankovich, who refused to discuss terms of the contract, said MacPherson “was the No. 1 choice, the only choice and we moved as rapidly as we could.”

MacPherson is 60, just two years younger than Rust and three years older than former Coach Raymond Berry. But he is much quicker with the quip and livelier on the sidelines.

When asked why he would want to take over such a bad team, MacPherson said: “I just feel it’s a great job. There’s a task here that excites me very much.”

MacPherson said he was brought up in a family of 12 during the Depression. He said “If you can survive that, you can survive anything.”

In 17 seasons as a college head coach, seven at Massachusetts and 10 at Syracuse, his record is 111-73-5. The Orangemen were 7-4-2 this season and won the Aloha Bowl.

MacPherson has also been an assistant coach in the NFL with the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns.