You are in rarified air among Central New Yorkers if you’ve ever played on a National Championship team. Dick Easterly is one of those athletes.

 

A product of North High (Class of 1957), Dick captained the football and basketball teams.  And he swung a .565 bat for the baseball team during the 1956 season.

Then it was on to the Hill and the glory days of Syracuse University football.  A walk-on quarterback/defensive back for the frosh in the fall of ’57 , Dick earned a scholarship and reshirted the following year.  In 1959, he was a backup QB and key defensive back on the 11-0 National Champions who capped a perfect season by beating Texas in the Cotton Bowl.  He later moved from QB to halfback.

In the spring of ’61 he was named to the District 2 all-tournament baseball team as the Orangemen won their way to the university’s only appearance in the College World Series.  That fall he captained the football team and was the Most Valuable Player in the Liberty Bowl.

 

Dick was named his team’s top back in the Blue-Gray game, had a 94-yard kickoff return in the US Bowl, and was the recipient of SU football’s Pat Miller (student-athlete-citizen) Award.  He played on teams coached by Hall of Famer Ben Schwartzwalder that won 26 of 31 games – winning both the Cotton and Liberty Bowls.

 

A 1962 SU graduate, Dick was drafted by the NFL but chose to play pro ball in Canada.  In three Canadian Football League seasons (1962-64(, he played in two Grey Cups with the Hamilton Tiger Cats – winning the CFL crown in ’64.

 

Dick is in the financial planning business.  He and his wife Mary live in Tampa, Florida