The Roger J. Weiss [apos]61 Coach of Football
Tim Pendergast was named Cornell University's 24th head football coach by Director of Athletics Andy Noel on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001. The 2003 season marks his third year with the Big Red program as head coach, though he also served as an assistant at Cornell in the 1980s.
Pendergast, 45, had served as head football coach at Hamilton College prior to leading the Big Red. Before his appointment at Hamilton, Pendergast was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Memphis from 1997 to 2000. In his first two seasons at Memphis, he served as the secondary coach, then switched to wide receivers in 1999.
Pendergast's Big Red team doubled its win total from his first year with a 4-6 season a year ago with a squad that was playing 17 sophomores on its two-deep. All four of the young team's wins came in the last two minutes of play or in overtime situations and Cornell put nine players on the All-Ivy team, the most Big Red players to be honored in six seasons.
Pendergast was a member of the James Madison University coaching staff from 1993-96, serving as the defensive coordinator for two seasons ('95-96), while also working as the recruiting coordinator. He was the secondary coach at the University of Maine from 1992-93, after coaching the wide receivers at Northwestern University from 1990 to 1991.
He began his coaching career in 1980 as a graduate assistant at Ithaca College, serving as freshman defensive coordinator, and he was also an assistant track coach for the Bombers.
Pendergast was appointed to the Cornell varsity football staff as the secondary coach in January 1983 after serving as head freshman coach in 1982 and as a graduate assistant in 1981. He was named the Big Red's recruiting coordinator in May 1989. He was defensive coordinator for the Cornell freshman team in 1981 and also worked with the special teams and defensive backs. In addition to coaching the freshman team, he also worked with the varsity program as a defensive coach and assisted in recruiting.
A 1980 graduate of State University of New York at Cortland, Pendergast received a bachelor of science degree in physical education and earned his master's degree in physical education from Ithaca College in 1986.
He was a three-year starter as a defensive back at Cortland and was awarded the T. Fred Holloway Award, presented annually to the senior physical education major who is the top student-athlete.
Pendergast participated in football, basketball, track and lacrosse at Bishop Grimes High School in Syracuse, N.Y.
Pendergast and his wife, Leslie, have three children, Greg, Taylor and Lia.
