Former Navy football coach is dead at 83
George Chaump, who was head football coach at the Naval Academy from 1990 through 1994, has died at age 83.
Chaump passed away Saturday in his home state of Pennsylvania, where he was a revered high school head coach. Officials with District III of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, where Chaump spent much of his coaching career, announced his death. A cause of death is not known at this time, according to media reports.
Chaump is the third former Navy football head coach to die this year. George Welsh (1973-1981) and Rick Forzano (1969-1972) died one week apart in early January.
Officially hired as Navy coach on Jan. 8, 1990, Chaump expressed immediate optimism about his prospects with the program.
“I’m excited,” Chaump told that day. “The more I get into the Navy situation, the more I learn, the better it looks to me. I consider this a premier coaching situation.”
Chaump came to Navy after a successful four-year stint at Marshall University, where he compiled a 33-16-1 record. He was 53 years old at the time and had an impressive resume, having served as quarterbacks coach at Ohio State under legendary head coach Woody Hayes and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the esteemed John McKay.
Navy athletic director Jack Lengyel hired Chaump from a list of finalists that included former NFL coaches Gene Stallings and Darryl Rogers, along with William & Mary head coach Jimmye Laycock. Reportedly, former Navy assistants Tom O’Brien, Dean Pees and Kevin Rogers were also considered.
“We reviewed an outstanding field of football coaches and I believe our superintendent and the Naval Academy Athletic Board of Control have made an excellent selection in George Chaump,” Lengyel said at the time.
Navy would be the third and last collegiate head coaching job for Chaump, whose first stop was Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 1982-85.
Chaump was unable to duplicate the success he achieved at IUP and Marshall in Annapolis. Navy went 14-41 in five seasons under Chaump, who had taken over afterthe ill-fated three-year term of Elliott Uzelac.
Chaump inherited a program that had suffered seven straight losing seasons and was unable to reverse that slide. After leading the Midshipmen to a respectable 5-6 mark in 1990, Chaump presided over back-to-back 1-10 seasons .
Navy went through five different quarterbacks because of injuries in 1992. Chaump was eventually forced to move tailback Jason Van Metre to quarterback and employ an option offense.
Navy improved to 4-7 in his fourth season, but a 3-8 record in 1994 led Lengyel to replace him. Charlie Weatherbie came in and turned things around with many of the players Chaump had recruited, leading Navy to record of 9-3 in 1996 and 7-4 in ’97.
Chaump’s first Navy squad was led by quarterback Alton Grizzard, who threw for 1,438 yards and 12 touchdowns in 1990. Chaump had installed the high-powered passing attack that had been the cornerstone of his success at every stop.
Quarterback Jim Kubiak, who later enjoyed a short stint in the NFL, amassed 5,016 passing yards and 21 touchdowns during the 1993 and ’94 seasons. However, those offensive numbers did not translate to success as Navy averaged just 14 points in its 15 losses over those two seasons. twitter.com/BWagner_CapGaz
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