Dick Farley

Bio

Dick Farley played defensive back for the San Diego Chargers in the NFL and for Boston University and was a college teammate of Hall of Famer Bruce Taylor. After two seasons in the NFL, he was hired in 1971 as an assistant football and track coach at Williams. He remained as an assistant coach for 15 seasons before succeeding Bob Odell (a Hall of Fame player from Penn) in 1987. His success was not immediate as he lost his first three games and then went on to put together a streak of 128 games without losing back-to-back games. His overall record of 114-19-3 resulted in a .849 winning percentage that was sixth best on the all-time list at the time of his retirement after the 2003 season. When he took the job, Williams had a six-game losing streak against archrival Amherst. As head coach Farley dominated his rivals posting a combined record of 29-4-1 against Amherst and Wesleyan. Dick’s teams excelled on defense as he posted 25 shutouts including four in a row in 1988 and his teams were always among the nation’s leaders in defense. Picking the best of his many teams is a difficult task due to the fact that he had five undefeated seasons and had a 23-game unbeaten streak. Amongst Williams fans and alumni, Farley was as well known for his sayings (Farleyisms) as his wins. His most quoted remark is “If you can’t play here you can’t play anywhere. There is no Division IV.” Others include: “Nothing good happens after midnight,” and “Three hours to play, a lifetime to remember.”