BU Athletic Hall of Famer Dick Farley Dies
BU Athletic Hall of Famer Dick Farley Dies
Standout Terrier Athlete Went on to Become a Top College Football Coach
Dick Farley, a member of the Boston University Athletic Hall of Fame and a football coaching legend at Williams College, died on April 1, 2026. He was 79.
A captain in both BU football and track and field, Farley (Wheelock’68,’75) set records in both sports for the Terriers. He became one of only three in BU Athletics history to receive the Mickey Cochrane Award (1967) as the University’s top male athlete and the E. Ray Speare Award (1968) as the top male scholar-athlete.
Farley began his Terrier career as a halfback and finished second on the team in scoring, with 26 points. Warren Schmakel, head coach at the time, switched him to safety his junior year, and he went on to set program records for interceptions in a season (9), career (14), and in a game (3). “We needed a fast and agile safety man with good size to protect us deep,” Schmakel said of the move.
Farley signed with the San Diego Chargers and played for two seasons before a back injury forced him to retire. He was inducted in the BU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.
He joined Williams as the head track and field coach and an assistant football coach; he became head football coach in 1987. His teams recorded five perfect seasons, including a 23-game winning streak that until 2005 was the longest in NCAA Division III history. In 2006, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame with an all-time record of 114-19-3. In 2019, ESPN listed Farley as one of the top 150 college football coaches of all time.