NCAA Endzone

Fisher DeBerry, who coached Air Force for 23 years, retired on Friday as the Falcons coach.

DeBerry, 68, whose 169-109-1 record made him the winningest coach in Air Force history, had the third-longest tenure at one school of any active college coach, after Joe Paterno (41 years at Penn State) and Bobby Bowden (31 years at Florida State).

But DeBerry had suffered through three straight losing seasons, his longest streak of futility ever at the school.

There was also some controversy during DeBerry’s tenure as well. In 1995, DeBerry was criticized after a loss to TCU when he said that the Academy didn’t have enough “Afro-American players who run well.” He was reprimanded by the school and offered a public apology.

Still, there was more good than bad, more winning than losing, during his tenure.

DeBerry was 35-11 against Army and Navy and led Air Force to 14 Commander-in-Chief’s trophies awarded to the winner of the annual service academy rivalry, but he lost his grip on the trophy as Navy won it the last four years. He also won three conference championships and taken Air Force to numerous bowl games.

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In other news, Kevin Richardson ran for 179 yards and four touchdowns to lead Appalachian State to its second straight NCAA Division I-AA national championship with a 28-17 victory over Massachusetts on Friday.

Richardson’s third touchdown put the Mountaineers (14-1) ahead 21-14 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He added another for 2 yards with 1:51 left that gave him the I-AA record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 30.

Appalachian State is the first team to win consecutive crowns in six years. The Minutemen finished the season at 13-2.