Lehigh-Holy Cross-Gilmore: A flashback

When Kevin Higgins left Lehigh to becomes quarterbacks coach of the Detroit Lions in 2001, he gave Lehigh athletic director Joe Sterrett three recommendations for the head coaching position.

Pete Lembo, Higgins’ assistant head coach.

Dave Cecchini, the offensive coordinator.

Tom Gilmore, the defensive coordinator.

Together, those four guys had put their talents together to make Lehigh virtually unbeatable. In Higgins’ last three seasons as head coach, the Brown and White lost only one regular-season game. Won 32.

Sterrett got Higgins’ decision on a Sunday. On that same day, Sterrett met with the entire coaching staff and learned that, if he was willing to stay inside for Higgins’ replacement, all of Higgins’ coaches were committed to staying to maintain the momentum.

Sterrett met with each of Higgins’ recommended staffers for about an hour apiece.

A paralyzing snowstorm the next day kept Sterrett from doing anything on Monday, but he did call the college president. He had a decision, he told Dr. Gregory Farrington.

On Tuesday, he met with the coaches as a group again.

On Wednesday, he announced that Lembo would become the head coach.

During the press conference confirming all the decisions, Sterrett told us that the three coaches “never viewed [the interview process] in competitive terms, so this is not a case of one winning and two losing. I told them none of them was good enough [to replace Higgins] but together they have a chance.”

The whole thing was a big deal. The Morning Call carried four stories in the paper on Feb. 8.

Now, it seemed, Lehigh had a three-headed leader, even though Sterrett chose Lembo because, he said, Lembo “is the most prepared.” Pete had not really been involved as much in coaching as in administrating – he was also the recruiting coordinator under Higgins.

We all wondered how long this arrangement would work because all three coaches were looking to make names for themselves.

Lehigh went 8-4 in 2002, after which Cecchini left to coach the offense at Harvard. The Brown and White went 8-3 in 2003, after which Gilmore left to become head coach at Holy Cross. Neither one of those moves surprised anyone.

Gilmore coached in Worcester 14 years and won 72 games, the second most in history there, but wound up being fired with four games remaining in the 2017 season. And now, he’s back as the first-year head coach at Lehigh. He succeeds Andy Coen, who retired after 12 years as the head coach.

The Brown and White, coming off a 3-8 season, are on a four-game winning streak right now and lead the Patriot League with a 3-0 mark. Holy Cross is 4-4, but 2-0 in the league and coming to Goodman Stadium at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday for a showdown that could determine the league champion.

It’s going to be a special day for Gilmore, but it won’t be any more emotional than Oct. 8, 2005 was. That was the day he returned to Goodman for the first time as Holy Cross head coach. Lembo was on the Lehigh sideline.

Keith Groller covered the game for The Call. I was there as a columnist.  Just this week, I stumbled across the column that I wrote from that game. I’m going to share it again because I think it just seems to be a perfect fit this week.

As Christmas presents go, the one Tom Gilmore gave himself in 2003 was a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle times 10.

It was on Dec. 24 of that year that the man who distinguished himself as the architect of a Lehigh defense that was the envy of the Patriot League football decided to accept the position of head coach at Holy Cross.

The Crusaders had just finished a 1-11 season. A handful of 3-8 and 2-9 seasons during the 1990s decimated a program that won three straight Patriot League titles and posted a 30-2-1 record from 1989-91. The only winning season after ’91 came in 2000, when they were 7-4.

Still, Gilmore was pretty much hemmed in at Lehigh after Pete Lembo was named head coach and Gilmore and Dave Cecchini were tabbed defensive and offensive coordinators, respectively, when Kevin Higgins left South Mountain for the NFL.

When he arrived in Worcester, Gilmore found a campus that didn’t care a lot about football. Alumni had turned their backs on the program, too. And when he hit the recruiting trail, he also discovered that most of the quality players wouldn’t give him the time of day.

Holy Cross’ 2004 numbers didn’t suggest any great renaissance, either – the Crusaders were 3-8, and only one of those wins was in the league.

But on Saturday, when Gilmore returned to Goodman Stadium as the enemy for the first time, a couple of Holy Cross seniors, who bought into his program because they were tired of carrying the “loser” label, put their own stamp on the Gilmore revival.

The 1984 “Hail Mary” pass from Doug Flutie to Gerard Phelan that enabled Boston College to shock Miami may forever be the most replayed collegiate touchdown play in New England.

But in the future, somebody’s going to have to make room for John O’Neil-to-Sean Gruber, Oct. 8, 2005.

The ball was heavy and wet. The field was rapidly disintegrating into a quagmire as the result of heavy downpours. The Holy Cross offense had been nullified all day by a Lehigh defense that included a bunch of guys who had played for Gilmore. Time was running out, and a field goal would not do any good.

Gruber was not the No. 1 option on the second-and-8 play at the Lehigh 34, but he said that O’Neil, prior to the play, said, “I may throw it up, so be ready.”

O’Neil heaved it long, and it appeared that Lehigh defensive back Kaloma Cardwell had the best angle on it. Gruber wasn’t sure where the ball was, “so I ran to [Cardwell] because he knew where it was.” The ball got into Cardwell’s hands, but Gruber reached in and snatched it from him in the end zone.

“Had [Cardwell] not tried to make a play, the ball may well have fallen incomplete,” Lembo said, although not faulting his senior for the effort. “It was one of those freak things that happen.”

The result? Holy Cross 13, Lehigh 10.

Holy Cross is now 4-2 overall, 2-0 in the league, and Gilmore allowed himself to get a bit giddy.

“I don’t know what’s in store the rest of the season, but I really believe we can with the rest of our games,” he said. “I know it’s not going to be easy, but I don’t think a Holy Cross football coach has been able to say that in an awful long time, to say that we have a good chance of winning out and winning the championship.”

Colgate and Lafayette may have something to say about that, but on this day, it was hard to deflate Gilmore’s enthusiasm. His team earned it.

Colgate didn’t win the title that year. Neither did Lehigh. The league champ turned out to be Lafayette, winning the second of three consecutive titles under Coach Frank Tavani.

Lembo is currently the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator at the University of Memphis, which is 7-1, with its only loss coming by two points to Temple. Cecchini is now the head coach at Bucknell and still looking for his first win of the season. Higgins is assistant head coach at Wake Forest, which is 6-1 with its only loss coming against Louisville (62-59).

As Lehigh and Holy Cross warm up on Saturday, Gilmore might have a chance to say hello to some players who were part of his final team. But when the game begins, there will be no doubt about where Gilmore’s heart and mind will be.

“I don’t think anyone who met me during my 14 years at Holy Cross could say I didn’t bleed purple,” Gilmore told a reporter the day after being dismissed. And, that was probably true.

But trust me. Tom Gilmore has had a transfusion. His blood is brown and white through and through, and the only team he wants to see win a game on Saturday is the one whose home is Goodman Stadium. And if it happens, no one will be happier than Gilmore.