GCC Alumnus Andy Reid

coaches Kansas City Chiefs to 38-35 win at the Super Bowl

By Alex Leon The writing is on the wall, literally, for Andy Reid and Glendale Community College

On the large board adjacent to Jim Sartoris Field is the scoreboard resplendent in cardinal and gold and almost 20 years later is an integral piece of GCC Athletics, generously donated by the Andy Reid Family in 2005, the year the field was dedicated

Reid came to GCC in 1976 as an offensive lineman from John Marshall High School, hoping to improve enough to transfer to USC He was an integral part of the WSC Championship team in 1977 and even added placekicking duties to his resume He ultimately transferred to Brigham Young University where his coaching career started as a graduate assistant coach in 1984

Fast forwarding to 2023 after Reid coached the Kansas City Chiefs to a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in LVII Sunday, Feb 12 in Glendale, Arizona, Reid is not only regarded as one of the most successful coaches in NFL history, ranking 5th all-time with 247 wins and second in playoff wins with 22, but possibly more importantly, the ultimate players coach who is beloved by everyone in the Chiefs organization as he is with every school and team he has played and coached for

Especially at Glendale College

His childhood friends and teammates from Los Angeles and Glendale flock to attend games he is coaching in and love telling stories about the friend and man known as "Big Red" and in-kind stories about their loyalty are well chronicled, especially when he is coaching in the Super Bowl, which will be No. 4, as an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers in 1997, as the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004 and Kansas City Chiefs in 2019-20 and 2023 He has been on the winning side now three times with the Packers and now the Chiefs in 2019 and 2023

One person who keeps up with him proudly from the sideline is his former head coach at GCC, Jim Sartoris, and his comments speak to what he means to Glendale College

"Andy Reid was an outstanding student-athlete on our 1976 and 1977 football teams As an offensive lineman he was a team leader and also did the place-kicking, said Sartoris about Reid who was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 "Besides his physical skills he was very coachable and a great teammate. I will always remember his contributions to the team He was a great competitor, who was analytical in his approach to the game and he helped set the tone of the winning tradition of Glendale College Football."

Normally, anticipation would be building for any Super Bowl Reid is coaching in but the game, ironically in Glendale, Arizona, had many sub plots attached to it with Reid coaching against his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles and a former Chiefs assistant coach Nick Sirianni, serving as head coach of the Eagles

But especially after Sunday's win, anyone who cheers for the Chiefs and Reid will still follow him game after game and year after year, revel in stories about the local boy who made good and get a big kick out of his recent State Farm Insurance commercial with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the feel good moments when he spoke at John Madden's memorial service last year and hugged Eagles players and coaches at a Super Bowl meet and greet recently

And they will be supporting Andy Reid throughout Glendale College and as they say proudly at GCC, "Once a Vaq, Always a Vaq.''