Edinboro University Athletics

Tom Herman ('72) is the recipient of the Athletic Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to an individual with Edinboro ties who has gone on to achieve notoriety outside of Edinboro. Herman was a standout athlete in his own right as a Fighting Scot, as an undersized center and defensive end on the football team in the early 70’s. In fact, he was the center on the 1970 team which was 9-1, won the State Championship game and advanced to the NAIA National Semifinals. He then embarked on a highly-successful coaching career that has spanned 35 years, the last nine as an assistant coach at Mercyhurst. He began his collegiate coaching career at Edinboro in 1972, then moved on to Marshall in 1974 to serve as a graduate assistant before returning to Edinboro in 1975. He remained with the Fighting Scots for the next 12 years, rising to assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, and finally interim head coach in the spring of 1986, before leaving for New Hampshire to serve as the linebackers coach later that year. He took over as Gannon’s head coach in 1989, restarting a program that had not competed in football since 1950. Building the program from its infancy, he would win 43 games in his ten seasons as the head coach, including a 7-3 record in 1995 and three six-win campaigns.