Frank Navarro

Frank F. Navarro (born February 15, 1931) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Williams College (1963–1967), Columbia University (1968–1973), Wabash College (1974–1977), and Princeton University (1978–1984), compiling a career college football coaching record of 99–99–6. In 1953, Navarro graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1953, where he played on the Maryland Terrapins football team. as offensive guard. As the Korean War broke out, Navarro took action and joined the Air Force. After a two-year stint in the Air Force Navarro headed to Teachers College at Columbia University, where the Lions head football coach Lou Little offered him the job of assistant offensive line coach under John Bateman in 1955. Little's offer ended Navarro's pursuit of teaching and got him on the path to a career in coaching. As an assistant to Watters, Frank Navarro introduced the "Monster Defense" at Williams and rang up a slew of shutouts in the early 1960s. In 1961 and 1962 the Ephs won 12 games and 8 of those wins came by blanking the opposition. The monster defense was designed for the linemen to tie up the blockers and allow the linebackers to make the tackles. The monster defense featured a new technique – slanting defensive linemen. The monster or the scrape linebacker was the one who was targeted to make the tackles after the linemen tied up the offensive line.
After the 1967 season Navarro left Williams to become the head coach at Columbia (1968–73), before heading to Wabash College (1974–77) and then closed out his coaching career at Princeton (1978–84). Even though Navarro led Wabash to the NCAA title game in 1977 where they fell to Widener, he has always had special feelings for his time at Williams. When he left coaching in 1984 Navarro moved with his wife Jill to Charlestown, Rhode Island to live in their summer home. For one year he served as a color commentator for UMass football broadcasts and later spent six years on the broadcasts of the University of Rhode Island Rams. He also spent time working with sons Damon, Brian and Ed on real estate syndication. Navarro currently lives in Rhode Island with his wife Jill.

Navarro coached at Williams College from 1963 to 1967 and amassed a record of 28–11–1. While at Williams College, Norman Rockwell used him as the model for the coach in his painting, The Recruit. He was the 28th head football coach at Wabash College, serving from 1974 until 1977 and tallying a record of 26–17.