Swampscott's Jauron adds to accolades

As one of the best high school football players – and athletes – ever to come out of the North Shore, Swampscott’s Dick Jauron is accustomed to honors and accolades.

As a running back, he was the first three-time All-Ivy League player at Yale. After his senior season in 1972, he was named a first team All-American, a National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete, and the Ivy League’s Player of the Year.

Jauron, who turned 65 in October, recently added another honor to his long list when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He is the first player from Yale to be inducted in 34 years, and the first who played after World War II.

He was the first Yale running back to gain 1,000 yards in a season and rushed for 2,947 yards in three years for the Bulldogs. His college career included 16 consecutive games rushing for more than 100 yards, a Yale record that stood until 2006. He was awarded the Nils V. ‘Swede’ Nelson Award for sportsmanship after his junior season and the Bulger Lowe Award as the best Division IA/IAA player in New England as a senior.

After scoring the only touchdown in the East’s 9-3 win over the West in the East-West Shrine Bowl, he was picked in the fourth round -- 91st overall -- of the 1973 draft by the Lions.

He played eight seasons in the NFL – five with the Lions and three with the Bengals – and was named to the 1974 Pro Bowl. He retired after the 1980 season, and in 1985 he began his coaching career – 19 as an assistant coach, nine as a head coach. In 2001, the Associated Press named him Coach of the Year after leading the Bears to a 13-3 record.

He was also picked in the 25th round of the 1973 Major League draft by the St. Louis Cardinals as a shortstop.

While the accolades have been many, that doesn’t minimize how special and unique each one is. But there’s something special about the College Hall of Fame.

“It was quite honestly something that I’d never thought about, even in the years when friends or acquaintances would call me and tell me I was on the ballot,” Jauron said. “I just had other things going on and, I don’t know, I guess I just never thought about it.

“But then it happened and I’m very honored and surprised. But it’s definitely, for me, a group award. All kinds of people from every part of my background were so instrumental in everything I ever did. And then, of course, all my teammates and my coaching staff, it was just tremendous.”

How fast and agile was Jauron?

His head coach at Yale, Carm Cozza, who was inducted into the College Hall of Fame 13 years ago, is fond of saying: “I used to tell people that Dick was so good, you could be in a phone booth with him for 20 minutes and never touch him.”

The induction ceremony was held earlier this month in New York City. But it was a get-together earlier in the day – entitled “Dick Jauron, A Life of Excellence” on the seventh floor of the University Club in New York – that stood out for the former Bulldog.

“The induction ceremony was great, but earlier that day a number of my teammates, spearheaded by Bill Primps, Fred Danforth, and Sandy Cutler, had organized a luncheon and my family was there, our daughter Kacy, my brothers (Mike and Robert) were there,” Jauron said. “So many friends from Swampscott and from Yale and a lot of my teammates from Yale were there. Coach Cozza was there and (Swampscott’s) Frank DeFelice.

“It was just a tremendous honor. The luncheon was very nice. It was a real nice function because it gave us all time to talk, and it gave time for particularly our daughter Kacy to meet a lot of these people that she’s never met, because she’s never been around here, like my college teammates, Coach Cozza. Just tremendous.”

Jauron, who starred in football, basketball, and baseball at Swampscott High and has returned to live in town, also had a group of about 40 local friends who traveled with him to the Yale-Harvard game in New Haven on Nov. 21. Kacy accompanied him onto the field when he was presented with a plaque recognizing his Hall of Fame induction.

“That was fun,” he said. “That was pretty great.

“I’m thrilled to get (this honor), but it’s really not about me. It’s about us, and there’s a lot of ‘us’ involved in it, from family to friends to every age group. There’s so many people that played a part.”

Follow Maureen Mullen on Twitter at @MaureenAMullen.