Dick McPherson

Dick McPherson graduated from Springfield High School in 1963 and played football and other sports for all 4 years of high school.

He played the next four years (1963 – 1967) at Heidelberg College under the legendary Coach Joe Malmisur. Coach Mac was hired as an assistant football coach by Head Coach Dave Pavlansky in 1969 and coached football for 26 years. The group of coaches hired by Pav were a tight knit, loyal group of men that focused both on teaching football and instilling pride in their players.

As written by David Pavlansky in the Seminarian on Nov. 5, 1976: “Mac may be nuts, but we’d be in a sorry position if we lost him to another school. He knows more about blocking techniques and assignments than anyone I know.” This was a quote by Bulldog lineman who wished to remain nameless for fear of being labeled a browny.

Aside from coaching football, Mac coached several years of tennis often referring to the forehand as the forearm. Despite this, one of his tennis players won First in the State Tournament. When his daughter started to run Cross Country he became a licensed official so he could stay active at the meets.

Mac was instrumental in helping to coordinate the new 8-lane synthetic track at Poland High School and he was very proud to be a starter for track meets in the county and at the Poland Invitational Track Meet.