Army’s motivated coach earned his stripes at UH

From an office that overlooks West Point’s 89-year-old Michie Stadium, head football coach Rich Ellerson sits amid reminders of Army’s rich history.

But tucked in among the memorabilia, he will tell you proudly, is a game ball close to his heart that speaks to his past.

It is from the 1989 meeting between Hawaii and Brigham Young, the game where "We got after BYU so decisively," as Ellerson puts it, adding, "…when Norm (Chow) was there as coach."

Ellerson was the Rainbows’ defensive coordinator in the breakthrough 56-14 victory that ended a 10-game losing streak against the Cougars.

Bob Wagner, the then-UH head coach who gave him the ball, said, "People remember all the points we scored against BYU that game, but they forget the defense. We set a record for sacks (10) that night, too, and Rich had a lot to do with that."

The mark for sacks is among several defensive records from that game that still stand as Ellerson, 59, returns to Aloha Stadium on Saturday against his alma mater — and Chow.

UH, WHERE ELLERSON spent more than a decade as a player and coach, was, he says, "a big part of my life." It was where he was a two-way player (linebacker and center), earned two degrees, achieved a place in UH lore for the first tackle at Aloha Stadium and found his calling as a football coach.

And where he first boldly talked about someday coaching at West Point. When other assistants on the UH staffs dreamed out loud of going on to call the shots at a USC or UCLA, Ellerson imagined a place at Army and spent 30 years working toward it.

His father, Geoffrey, is a graduate of West Point, as are two older brothers, including John, who was the 1962 team captain of the Black Knights and went on to become a major general. Their pictures dot Rich’s office.

But Rich, true to his free-spirited, eclectic nature, took the most circuitous route to West Point. Born on an Army post in Japan, he got to the Hudson via the Naval Academy and UH.

He attended Annapolis, but a 10-day summer cruise to Hawaii changed his mind about the attraction of, as he termed it, a career "driving boats." What he wanted to do, he said he told the stunned commandant at Annapolis, "was coach (football) and teach, sir."

Or, as he put it Monday, "It was football and it was also the sense of adventure" that brought him to UH. "It (Hawaii) is absolutely unique and I am a water guy."

HE COACHED linebackers, the defensive line and special teams at UH, where he is remembered as perhaps the most cerebral coach the school has produced. He quoted Vince Lombardi and Gandhi with equal alacrity to his players, fellow coaches and the media.

Now he’s five seasons into his biggest challenge yet, attempting to turn around the lagging football fortunes of Army, where he is 20-39 in five seasons, including 3-7 this year. He delivered the school’s only winning season (2010) in the past 16 years and seeks to build a foundation for more frequent success.

Meanwhile, that 1989 game ball sits there, a reminder of what is possible.

"Nobody wanted to beat BYU more than Rich," Wagner said. "Now, he’s driven to succeed at Army."

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.