So many story lines merged at Brown University’s Pizzitola Center on Tuesday that’s it’s difficult to know where to begin.
There was James Perry, the best quarterback in Brown’s 141 years of football, standing before coaches, administrators, players, students, alums and reporters as the new head coach, the man Brown is counting on to halt the five-year slide from Ivy League championship contention to 1-9 irrelevance.
Perry is 41 now, two decades removed from the 1999 season when he led Brown to a share of the Ivy League championship and was the Ivy player of the year. He still looks fit enough to put on a uniform and throw touchdown passes. I won’t be surprised if he does that in practice, either, minus the pads, of course. For Perry’s vision for Brown football starts with passion. Passion for Brown. Passion for football. Passion for practice. Passion for success.
“There isn’t any place I could be more passionate about,” he told me later. And why not? Not only was he a record-smashing football hero, a three-time All-Ivy quarterback, but he met his wife Abby on Wriston Quad. He graduated in 2000, she in 2001. They have three children, and Perry has already committed them to Brown: Samuel, Class of 2031; Nathaniel, Class of 2034, and Rosemary, Class of 2038.
After coaching stops at Dartmouth, Williams and Maryland, Perry returned to Brown as quarterbacks coach. He tutored Michael Dougherty during the 2008 championship season, Brown’s last.
He left for Princeton in 2010 and in seven seasons helped transform the Tigers from also-rans to champions. Fast and Physical became the Princeton brand.
Perry took that brand to Bryant University, his first head coaching position, in 2016. He posed consecutive 6-5 records and was looking forward to greater success with the Bulldogs when Brown called.
“There’s no way I could have predicted this happening two years ago. Bryant is one of the best programs in the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision). I was torn, but the pull was too strong,” he said of his decision to leave Bryant.
People at both schools knew that call was inevitable but hoped for another two or three years perhaps, time for Perry to establish himself as a head coach and for Phil Estes to retire from Brown back at or near the top of the Ivy League. It didn’t turn out that way.
The Phil Estes and Mark Whipple story lines were there, even though they were not. Whipple recruited Perry out of Malden Catholic High School in suburban Boston and coached him for two years before leaving for UMass. Estes coached him for his last two years and mentored him when Perry was on his staff.
“As great a coach as he was, he was a better boss. I owe him great debt and am extraordinarily honored to carry on his legacy,” Perry said of Estes. “He knows I love him and appreciate his support. I’ll continue to turn to him as a mentor.”
Jack Hayes, Brown’s director of athletics, described Estes as a “model of what a coach should be.” If so, why was he let go? “You got to look at the totality of it,” he replied, an obvious reference to the last five seasons, especially the last three, which were 4-6, 2-8 and 1-9 in that order.
There was the quarterback angle. Sitting among the many old-timers was Bob Hall, Brown’s great quarterback in the mostly dismal 1960s. Perry thanked him for his support during Perry’s playing career.
After Brown’s last drought in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the school turned to Whipple, the Bears quarterback in the late 1970s. Whipple left a strong program at New Haven and resuscitated the Brown Bears.
Now, Brown turns to another former quarterback for revival.
Another story line was Brown’s football tradition. Former chancellor Artemis Joukowsky and Brown sports archivist Peter Mackie, both alums from the 1950s, attended. Between them they know more about Brown sports than anybody on the planet. Retired athletic trainers Frank George and Russ Fiore, who spent decades on the football sidelines, were there. So were Fred Polacek, tight end on the 1976 championship team, and Bernie Buonanno, a prominent alumnus.
Perry said the response since the announcement of his hiring on Monday has been “amazing, the typical Brown football response.”
A new story line began Tuesday. The James Perry Era is underway. Get ready for Fast and Physical. The past is past. Blinders are on. It’s full speed ahead.
“We’re gong to get running,” Perry said. “We’re going to fill up the field with speed. . . . I’m looking forward to hitting that field running.”
