“And I think it’s important — if you have something unique about your place — that you showcase that.
“When recruits come in here, you can show them success over multiple coaches. And when alumni come back, it gives them a real nostalgic effect.”
While the full account of Flyers’ tradition can best be found in the record books, some of the most eye-catching figures with UD ties dominate the walls of the Dayton football offices on the second floor of the Frericks Center.
When you walk in the front door you immediately see a framed likeness of Chuck Noll, the former Flyers player who went on to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles.
Next to him is an image of Jon Gruden, the back-up UD quarterback who became the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and later the Las Vegas Raiders. In between — in 2002 — he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory in Super Bowl XXXVIII. At the time, he was 39 and became the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl.
On a side wall in the UD offices is a tribute to Rick Carter, who coached the Flyers from 1977 through 1980, his last team going 14-0 and winning the NCAA Division III national title with a 63-0 victory over Ithica in the championship game. He was named the AFCA College Division Coach of the Year.
Soon there should be areas celebrating both Coach Mike Kelly — who won 246 games and an NCAA Division III national title at UD and is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame — and Rick Chamberlin, an All-American linebacker for the Flyers and Kelly’s longtime assistant.
Chamberlin took over the head coaching job after Kelly retired, won 107 games and three Pioneer Football League titles in 15 seasons before retiring after the 2022 season.
Propped against a wall in Andrews’ office is a framed and autographed New Orleans Saints jersey once worn by Flyer celebrated tight end Adam Trautman. He plays for Denver now, so Andrews is getting that jersey, too, before anything goes on display.
And, he’s getting another from Michael Niese, the former Flyers offensive lineman, who is now with the Detroit Lions.
The gallery got a prominent addition last week when a striking portrait of former Flyers coach John McVay was hung on a wall just outside Andrews’ office.,
McVay led the Flyers from 1965 through 1972 and then went on to fame in the NFL, first as a head coach and then as a San Francisco 49ers executive who had a big hand in putting together five Super Bowl championship teams. In 1989 he was named the NFL Executive of the Year.
His grandson, Sean, who played at Miami University like he did, coached the Los Angeles Rams to a Super Bowl title in 2022 over the Cincinnati Bengals and, in the process, leap-frogged Gruden as the youngest coach to win the crown. He was 36.
The John McVay work was done by acclaimed Kettering portrait artist, Greg Gibson.
It was arranged by Dr. Tim Quinn, who played for McVay at UD — where he also was one of the most academically-accomplished athletes ever to play for any Flyers team — and then became a well-known local orthopedic surgeon and the Flyers’ team doctor for 21 years.
“UD has great football tradition, going back to Harry Baujan and the early, early years — that’s almost 100 years of football,” Quinn said. “And John McVay was a great part of that, especially for those of us who played for him and knew what he meant.”
The plaque beneath the McVay portrait touches on some of that and tells how he molded young men who went and did the same for others.
Some 60 of his players later coached in the high school, college and professional ranks.
Remembering a mentor
Quinn told how McVay supported him in his pursuit of a medical career while playing for the Flyers:
“He had a big impact in my life and made sure I had time for my academics, too.”
Quinn was a two-time, first team Academic All American at UD and twice was the recipient of John L. Macbeth Memorial Scholar Athlete Award given to the UD football player with the highest GPA.
As a pre-med student, he had an overall 3.84 GPA and was on the Dean’s List every semester at UD.
Last April, when former Flyers players gathered to honor McVay, who had died in October of 2022 at age 91, Quinn said he and Jim Place, the longtime area prep coach who also starred for McVay, talked about a more permanent way their old mentor could be remembered.
That’s when Quinn focused on a portrait and sought out his friend, Greg Gibson, who has done memorable images of several prominent figures, including the much-respected Judge Walter Rice, the senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Gibson has an interesting story himself.
Although he liked art growing up, he ended up graduating from the Princeton Theological Seminary and was initially assigned to the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin.
Ironically, several years earlier, McVay — after his All Mid-American Conference career at Miami University — coached at Franklin High School early in his career.
Soon after becoming a minster, Gibson decided on a radical career switch and enrolled in the University of Dayon School of Law, after which he became a prominent attorney here for 35 years, dealing primarily in civil litigation, much of it involving medical malpractice.
Near the end of his law career, he decided he wanted to do something in life that was a true passion, and he went back to his painting,
He studied under several noted artists, both regionally and in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and began making a name for himself as a portrait artist with a special ability to capture the essence, the character, of a person.
‘Determination’
Gibson was given just a few images of McVay from which to draw inspiration and he settled on a photo of the coach that he said had been on a football program.
“The biggest compliment someone can give me is that you got a person’s character in your portrait,” he said. “With Coach McVay, I tried to capture his determination.”
And McVay certainly had that when he was here.
As the plaque — whose text, Quinn said, was written by University of Dayton Director of Athletic Communications Doug Hauschild — notes, McVay orchestrated the biggest one-season turnaround in Flyers’ football history.
After his inaugural 1965 team went 1-8-1, the following season the Flyers were 8-2.
That can be a blueprint for the current UD team.
After being thumped 41-0 in the season opener by Illinois State, a scholarship program, the Flyers won two games, then lost six straight.
Although his team had a disheartening 2-7 mark at that point, Andrews made some changes in personnel, gave more responsibility to freshman players he had brought in and the Flyers finished strong, thumping Marist at home, 35-6, and then going into Davidson, where the 7-2 Wildcats were supremely confident beforehand.
Dayton took it to them, drubbing them 45-14 on their Senior Day to finish the season 4-7.
The Flyers have a strong recruiting class coming in, so better times seem to be on the horizon.
The other day, as Gibson was explaining his artistic process to Andrews — talking about first getting the composition and then “trying to build in the values and edges” to create something three dimensional — the coach seemed a bit out of his element.
“You can walk up to this and point out things that really stand out to you and I might not see them at all,” the coach finally conceded in quiet admission.
But really the only thing he needs see in the McVay portrait is the “determination” Gibson captured.
It was part of UD tradition back then.
It will be again.
About the Author