After 26 years in Colorado, Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry has become a native by what his Falcons have accomplished on the field.
DeBerry has been Air Force’s head coach for 22 of his 26 years on the coaching staff, and in that time his teams have won more games than any other service academy football coach, including Army’s legendary Earl “Red” Blaik.
DeBerry will be inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday night at the Colorado Springs World Arena. With a game remaining on the 2005 schedule, DeBerry’s teams have compiled a 164-101-1 record; have been to 12 bowl games, winning six; and won an outright Western Athletic Conference championship in 1998 and were co-champions in 1985 and 1995.
“It’s a shame that I can’t give a piece of this award to everyone who had a lot more to do with our success than myself,” DeBerry said.
“I’ve been privileged to work with great players, a wonderful support cast and a long list of fine assistant coaches. I’m accepting the award on behalf of all of them.”
Along with DeBerry, the inductions include football player Justin Armour; longtime announcer Jack Finlayson; Ada Gee-deProsse, a standout athlete in basketball and tennis at Wasson High School; Mike Moran, chief communications officer for the United States Olympic Committee for 24 years; and the 1971 Wasson football team, coached by Dick Westbay, that ended a 15-year drought of state football titles for Colorado Springs.
Armour played football for Manitou Springs High School, Stanford University, the Buffalo Bills, the Baltimore Ravens and the Broncos. He played for the Broncos in 1998 when the team won a second consecutive Super Bowl title, beating Atlanta 34-19.
Finlayson was a prominent radio and television announcer in Colorado Springs from the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. He called every major sports event in Colorado Springs, including Air Force football, Colorado College hockey and Colorado Springs Sky Sox baseball.
Gee-deProsse was an all-state basketball player in 1978 and 1979 and a state tennis champion in 1979. She earned nine varsity letters before moving on to Colorado College and eventually to coaching.
Before joining the USOC in 1979, Moran was sports information director at the University of Colorado.
The award ceremony also will include the F. Don Miller award, which will be given to Horst Richardson, longtime CC soccer coach, and the Thayer Tutt award to Fred Whitacre, for contributions to the Colorado Springs sports community.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
