Names Escape Me, But I Never Forget a Fazio

Foge Fazio, former assistant football coach at Boston University, has died of leukemia at the age of 71. After the 1966 and 1967 seasons with the Terriers, he couldn’t keep a job, but had no problem finding the next one, moving on to Harvard (1968), Pitt (1969-1972), Cincinnati (1973-1976), back to Pitt (1977-1985), where as head coach from 1982-1985 he went to two bowl games, Notre Dame (1986-1987), the Atlanta Falcons, (1988-1989), New York Jets (1990-1994), Minnesota Vikings (1995-1998), Washington Redskins (2000), Cleveland Browns (2001-2002) as defensive coordinator of the only playoff team of the second incarnation of the Browns. Ironically that playoff game effectively ended Fazio’s career, as Cleveland proved worthy of the Browns name, choking up a 33-21 lead with 4 minutes remaining, with head coach Butch Davis taking the headset and calling the defensive signals himself. He had been the color broadcaster for Pitt until October of this year, when he stepped down due to illness. The team honored his memory by blowing leads of 38-24 in the 4th quarter and 44-38 with under 2 minutes left.