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Jack Bicknell
Sport: Football
Born: February 20, 1938
Town: North Plainfield
Jack Bicknell was born February 20, 1938 in North Plainfield. Strong and smart with quick feet and a big arm, he became a star quarterback as a junior and senior for coach Don Schneider at North Plainfield High. He made All-Somerset in 1954. At 6’3” 180 lbs., Jack also played forward and center for the Canucks basketball squad and was all-county as a junior and senior.
Jack received a scholarship to play for Rutgers but a neck injury ended his playing career. After college, he was hired to coach the football team at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights and started developing an offense-first philosophy after attending clinics by college and pro coaches, including Sid Gillman. He coached the Highlanders to their one and only state title, in 1965. The team had an awesome defense that year and went undefeated.
In 1968, new Boston College head man Joe Yukica hired Jack as a backfield coach. He held that position until 1976, when he accepted his first college head coaching position at the University of Maine. In 1981, he accepted the head coaching job back at Boston College. Jack went shopping for a quarterback and found the pickings slim. He offered a local kid named Doug Flutie a scholarship thinking that he might make a good safety or receiver, but promised him a shot at the quarterback’s job. BC was the only Division-I school that recruited Flutie.
Flutie won the starting job and over four varsity seasons passed for over 10,000 yards and 67 touchdowns. During this time, Jack was offered the head job at Miami but turned it down out of loyalty to his quarterback. As luck would have it, in the game that sewed up Flutie’s Heisman-winning 1984 season, he beat the Hurricanes with an epic Hail Mary pass. That season, a one-point loss to West Virginia and a 37–30 loss to Penn State was all that stood between the Eagles and a #1 national ranking. Jack’s son, Jack Jr., was the center on the team; both of his boys went on to coach in the NFL.
In 1991, Jack became involved with pro football in Europe. He was named head coach of the Barcelona Dragons and held that job through the 2003 season. For a moment in the mid-90s, he was on the short list for the Rutgers job, but they went with a younger candidate. In 1997, the Dragons won the World Bowl. Quarterback Jon Kitna passed for a record 401 yards and was the game’s MVP. After coaching a couple of other overseas teams, Jack retired after the 2006 season.
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