First published in the Feb. 11 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
By Alex Leon
Special to the News-Press
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. It was 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 in Los Feliz, hoping to improve enough to transfer to USC. He was an integral part of the Western State Conference championship team in 1977 and even added placekicking duties to his resume. He eventually transferred to Brigham Young University, where his coaching career started as a graduate assistant coach in 1984.
Fast-forwarding to 2023 and the eve of Super Bowl LVII, Reid is not only regarded as one of the most successful coaches in NFL history but, more importantly, as the ultimate players’ coach. He is seemingly beloved by everyone in the Kansas City Chiefs’ organization as he is with most 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 that he coaches. They love telling stories about the friend and man known as “Big Red” and stories about their loyalty are well chronicled; especially when he is coaching in the Super Bowl. Sunday will mark his fifth appearance in the big game: He was an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers in 1997 and was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004, the Chiefs in 2019, 2020 and this season. He has been on the winning side twice before.
Andy Reid in his GCC days
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,” Sartoris said.
“As an offensive lineman, he was a team leader. He also did the placekicking for the team. 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 one of the toughest players we have ever coached, often playing with injury. He helped set the tone of the winning tradition of Glendale College football,” he said.
Normally, anticipation would be building for any Super Bowl that Reid is coaching in, but Sunday’s game, ironically in the Arizona city of “Glendale,” has many sub plots attached to it. Reid is coaching against his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, and a former Chiefs assistant coach, Nick Sirianni, serves as the Eagles’ head coach.
But win or lose, anyone who cheers for Reid will still follow him game after game and year after year, reveling in stories about the local boy who made good. Fans can enjoy Reid’s recent State Farm Insurance commercial with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the feel good moments when he spoke at former Raiders coach John Madden’s memorial service last year.
And they will be supporting Reid throughout Glendale College and, as they say proudly at GCC, “Once a Vaq, Always a Vaq.”
