Rickey Foggie
Encyclopedia
Rickey Foggie is a former quarterback
. Foggie was the starting
quarterback for the Minnesota Golden Gophers
for four seasons, before going on to play professionally in – first the Canadian Football League
, and then later in the Arena Football League. Foggie is currently an assistant football coach
in both the af2
and in high school football
.
quarterback in the South Carolina
high school
ranks and was recruited by Lou Holtz
to play collegiately at the University of Minnesota
, where Holtz was coming in to take over the program, after surprisingly leaving powerhouse Arkansas
. The Gophers were coming off a 1-10 season under Joe Salem
, from the previous year, and it didn’t take long for Foggie to assert himself as the starting
quarterback for Minnesota as a true freshman. The Gophers finished the 1984 season with a 4-7 record in Holtz’s first season as coach and Foggie’s first year as signal caller, as Foggie started to show off some of his versatile skills, both as a runner and a passer and give Minnesota fans a glimpse of a more promising outlook for the Gophers, with Foggie entrenched at quarterback. The season was topped off by a surprising upset over Iowa
and star quarterback Chuck Long
, which returned the Floyd of Rosedale
to Minnesota after a two year absence.
In 1985, Foggie’s sophomore season, the Gophers made further strides to be a solid program, as they finished off the regular season at 6-5 and earned an invitation to the Independence Bowl
, which would be their first bowl game in 8 years. Among the Gophers five defeats were close losses to Oklahoma
(who would go on to win the National Championship) and Ohio State
. Meanwhile, when the Notre Dame
head coach
ing position became available, Lou Holtz was offered and accepted the job to coach the Irish. Assistant John Gutekunst
was named the new head coach and led the Gophers in their bowl game against Clemson, which the Gophers won to raise their final season record to 7-5.
The Gophers would also finish 6-5 the following year in 1986 and earn another bowl invitation – this time to the Liberty Bowl
. They would lose to Tennessee
in this matchup. Foggie continued to develop into a better and more mature quarterback and was also helped along by the addition of talented freshman running back
, Darrell Thompson
, who emerged as a star in the making, that season. The highlight of that season was the Gophers upset of Rose Bowl bound Michigan
at The Big House
– earning Minnesota the Little Brown Jug
for the first time in 9 years.
In Foggie’s senior year in 1987, the Gophers again finished 6-5, however this year they failed to receive a bowl invite.
, Foggie was bypassed in the 1988 NFL Draft
. Although many felt he would have a better chance of making the NFL at another position, Foggie opted to remain a quarterback and joined the Canadian Football League
. He started out in the CFL with the BC Lions backing up Matt Dunigan, whom he would follow to Toronto in 1990. Later, he would join the Toronto Argonauts
, where he would be an instrumental part of the league’s highest scoring team. Foggie would later play for the Edmonton Eskimos
and the Memphis Mad Dogs
in the CFL.
, where he had starred collegiately, as the starting quarterback of the expansion Minnesota Fighting Pike
, who would only play that one season at the Target Center
in 1996. Then he would quarterback the New Jersey Red Dogs from 1997 to 2000, where he would attain his greatest success in the AFL, throwing for over 8,700 yards and 155 touchdowns in his first three seasons with the club. In 2001, he played for the Florida Bobcats
, where he may have had his best season in the AFL – setting personal season highs with 3619 yards passing and 69 touchdowns. In 2002, he played for the Detroit Fury
and the Toronto Phantoms
, and then after a season off in 2003, he played one final season in 2004 with the Carolina Cobras
. He finished his AFL career with 17921 yards passing, 325 touchdowns and a 96.38 quarterback rating.
as a coach. Foggie moved to the lower tier af2
to pursue this. In 2005 as the offensive coordinator
of the Amarillo Dusters
, he orchestrated the highest scoring offense in the af2, with a 55.8 average. In 2006, he got his only head coaching job to date, when he took over the Everett Hawks
after an 0-3 start. After only six games as the head man, there, Foggie was lured over to the Macon Knights
by head coach Derek Stingley to be their offensive coordinator. In 2007, Foggie followed Stingley to Albany, Georgia
to be the offensive coordinator for the South Georgia Wildcats
. Foggie also agreed to be the offensive coordinator of Burnsville High School
, a suburb of Minneapolis, after the af2 season ends. Rickey Foggie lives in Minneapolis, during the offseason.
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
. Foggie was the starting
Starting lineup
A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...
quarterback for the Minnesota Golden Gophers
Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports team for the University of Minnesota. The university fields both men's and women's teams in basketball, cross country, gymnastics, golf, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, and track and field. Men's-specific sports include baseball, football, and...
for four seasons, before going on to play professionally in – first the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
, and then later in the Arena Football League. Foggie is currently an assistant football coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
in both the af2
Af2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
and in high school football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
.
College career
He became a successful optionOption offense
The option offense is a generic term that is used to describe a wide variety of offensive systems in American football. Option offenses are characterized as such due to the predominance of option running plays employed in these schemes. Option offenses have traditionally relied heavily upon running...
quarterback in the South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
high school
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
ranks and was recruited by Lou Holtz
Lou Holtz
Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker in the United States...
to play collegiately at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, where Holtz was coming in to take over the program, after surprisingly leaving powerhouse Arkansas
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the names of college sports teams at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The term Arkansas Razorbacks properly applies to any of the sports teams at the university. The Razorbacks take their name from the feral pig of the same name...
. The Gophers were coming off a 1-10 season under Joe Salem
Joe Salem
-External links:*...
, from the previous year, and it didn’t take long for Foggie to assert himself as the starting
Starting lineup
A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...
quarterback for Minnesota as a true freshman. The Gophers finished the 1984 season with a 4-7 record in Holtz’s first season as coach and Foggie’s first year as signal caller, as Foggie started to show off some of his versatile skills, both as a runner and a passer and give Minnesota fans a glimpse of a more promising outlook for the Gophers, with Foggie entrenched at quarterback. The season was topped off by a surprising upset over Iowa
Iowa Hawkeyes football
The Iowa Hawkeyes football team is the interscholastic football team at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have competed in the Big Ten Conference since 1900, and are currently a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
and star quarterback Chuck Long
Chuck Long
Chuck Long is an American football coach. He played quarterback in college at Iowa for Hayden Fry and professionally with the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams. He is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame. In the January 2008 issue of San Diego Magazine he was chosen as one of...
, which returned the Floyd of Rosedale
Floyd of Rosedale
Floyd of Rosedale is the name of a bronze pig trophy that is awarded to the winner of the annual college football game between the Universities of Iowa and Minnesota...
to Minnesota after a two year absence.
In 1985, Foggie’s sophomore season, the Gophers made further strides to be a solid program, as they finished off the regular season at 6-5 and earned an invitation to the Independence Bowl
Independence Bowl
The Independence Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, so named because it was inaugurated in the United States bicentennial year, 1976....
, which would be their first bowl game in 8 years. Among the Gophers five defeats were close losses to Oklahoma
Oklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
(who would go on to win the National Championship) and Ohio State
Ohio State Buckeyes football
The Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of The Ohio State University. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA, playing at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, level. The team nickname is derived from the state...
. Meanwhile, when the Notre Dame
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...
head coach
Head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...
ing position became available, Lou Holtz was offered and accepted the job to coach the Irish. Assistant John Gutekunst
John Gutekunst
-External links:* *...
was named the new head coach and led the Gophers in their bowl game against Clemson, which the Gophers won to raise their final season record to 7-5.
The Gophers would also finish 6-5 the following year in 1986 and earn another bowl invitation – this time to the Liberty Bowl
Liberty Bowl
The Liberty Bowl is an annual U.S. American college football bowl game played in December of each year from 1959 to 2007 and in January in 2009 and 2010. The Liberty Bowl was sponsored by AXA Financial and was known as the AXA Liberty Bowl from 1997 to 2003...
. They would lose to Tennessee
Tennessee Volunteers football
The Tennessee Volunteers football team are an American college football team at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville . The NCAA Division I team is also a member of the Southeastern Conference ....
in this matchup. Foggie continued to develop into a better and more mature quarterback and was also helped along by the addition of talented freshman running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
, Darrell Thompson
Darrell Thompson
Darrell Alexander Thompson is a retired American football running back who played in the National Football League. After graduating from John Marshall High School in Rochester, he played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, where he became the school's all time leader in career...
, who emerged as a star in the making, that season. The highlight of that season was the Gophers upset of Rose Bowl bound Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
at The Big House
Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Stadium was built in 1927 at a cost of $950,000 and had an original capacity of 72,000. Before playing football at the stadium, the Wolverines played on Ferry Field...
– earning Minnesota the Little Brown Jug
Little Brown Jug (football)
The Little Brown Jug is an earthenware jug that serves as a trophy awarded to the winner of the American college football rivalry game played annually by the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team of the university of Minnesota and the Michigan Wolverines football team of the University of Michigan...
for the first time in 9 years.
In Foggie’s senior year in 1987, the Gophers again finished 6-5, however this year they failed to receive a bowl invite.
Canadian Football League (CFL)
Thought of as running quarterback who wouldn’t succeed in the National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, Foggie was bypassed in the 1988 NFL Draft
1988 NFL Draft
The 1988 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1988. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and...
. Although many felt he would have a better chance of making the NFL at another position, Foggie opted to remain a quarterback and joined the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
. He started out in the CFL with the BC Lions backing up Matt Dunigan, whom he would follow to Toronto in 1990. Later, he would join the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
, where he would be an instrumental part of the league’s highest scoring team. Foggie would later play for the Edmonton Eskimos
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895...
and the Memphis Mad Dogs
Memphis Mad Dogs
The Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States....
in the CFL.
Arena Football League (AFL)
Next he would embark on a career in the Arena Football League, where he would play 8 seasons spanning 10 years. He started off his AFL career back in MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, where he had starred collegiately, as the starting quarterback of the expansion Minnesota Fighting Pike
Minnesota Fighting Pike
The Minnesota Fighting Pike were an American football team that played one season in the Arena Football League. The team played at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
, who would only play that one season at the Target Center
Target Center
The Target Center is an arena in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is sponsored by Target Corporation. The arena has a capacity of 20,500 people. It contains 702 club seats and 68 suites....
in 1996. Then he would quarterback the New Jersey Red Dogs from 1997 to 2000, where he would attain his greatest success in the AFL, throwing for over 8,700 yards and 155 touchdowns in his first three seasons with the club. In 2001, he played for the Florida Bobcats
Florida Bobcats
The Florida Bobcats are a defunct Arena Football League team. They had been previously known as the Sacramento Attack and the Miami Hooters.-Sacramento Attack :...
, where he may have had his best season in the AFL – setting personal season highs with 3619 yards passing and 69 touchdowns. In 2002, he played for the Detroit Fury
Detroit Fury
The Detroit Fury were an Arena Football League team. The team began play in 2001 and was based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, also the home of the NBA's Detroit Pistons. The team was co-owned by William Davidson, who owned the Pistons, along with...
and the Toronto Phantoms
Toronto Phantoms
The Toronto Phantoms was the final name of a team in the Arena Football League, that also operated in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut.-New York CityHawks :The team began in 1997 as the New York CityHawks...
, and then after a season off in 2003, he played one final season in 2004 with the Carolina Cobras
Carolina Cobras
Not to be confused with the Los Angeles Cobras, who played in the 1988 AFL season.The Carolina Cobras were an expansion franchise in the Arena Football League...
. He finished his AFL career with 17921 yards passing, 325 touchdowns and a 96.38 quarterback rating.
Coaching career
At 38, Foggie retired on the playing field, but continued on in arena footballArena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
as a coach. Foggie moved to the lower tier af2
Af2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
to pursue this. In 2005 as the offensive coordinator
Offensive coordinator
An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of a gridiron football team who is in charge of the offense. Generally, along with his defensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
of the Amarillo Dusters
Amarillo Dusters
The Amarillo Venom are an professional indoor football team in the Lone Star Football League. The Venom began play in 2004 as the Amarillo Dusters, a charter member of the Intense Football League, a small indoor football league based in Texas. They won the championship in their first and only...
, he orchestrated the highest scoring offense in the af2, with a 55.8 average. In 2006, he got his only head coaching job to date, when he took over the Everett Hawks
Everett Hawks
The Everett Hawks are a now-defunct professional and later minor-league arena football team based in Everett, Washington, USA. The team was in existence for five years in three leagues, the Northwest Football League , the National Indoor Football League , and af2 and in two cities, the Eastside...
after an 0-3 start. After only six games as the head man, there, Foggie was lured over to the Macon Knights
Macon Knights
The Macon Knights were a professional arena football team, playing in the af2 league. They were a 2001 expansion member of af2. They played their home games at Macon Coliseum. The Knights were owned and operated by Beverly Olson. The Knights were formerly coached by Derek Stingley, who was a...
by head coach Derek Stingley to be their offensive coordinator. In 2007, Foggie followed Stingley to Albany, Georgia
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
to be the offensive coordinator for the South Georgia Wildcats
South Georgia Wildcats
The South Georgia Wildcats were a professional arena football team. They were a 2002 expansion member of af2, the minor league for the Arena Football League...
. Foggie also agreed to be the offensive coordinator of Burnsville High School
Burnsville High School
Burnsville High School is a three-year public high school located in Burnsville, Minnesota. The school is part of Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, which covers most of Burnsville, as well as parts of the surrounding cities Savage and Eagan, and small parts of Shakopee and Apple Valley...
, a suburb of Minneapolis, after the af2 season ends. Rickey Foggie lives in Minneapolis, during the offseason.