William Stephen Belichick (born April 16, 1952 in
Nashville, Tennessee) is the American football head
coach for the New England Patriots of the National
Football League. After spending his first 15 seasons
in the league as an assistant coach, Belichick got
his first head coaching job with the Cleveland
Browns in 1991. Of his five seasons coaching
Cleveland, only one featured a winning record, and
Belichick did not get another head coaching
opportunity until 2000 with the Patriots. Since
then, Belichick has coached the Patriots to four
Super Bowls; three victories in Super Bowls XXXVI,
XXXVIII, and XXXIX and a loss in Super Bowl XLII. He
was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year twice, for
the 2003 and 2007 seasons.
Belichick was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and
raised in Annapolis, where his father Steve
Belichick, a former Detroit Lions player and ethnic
Croat, was an assistant football coach at the United
States Naval Academy. After graduating from
Annapolis High School he attended Phillips Academy
in Andover, Massachusetts for a postgraduate year.
Belichick subsequently attended Wesleyan University
in Middletown, Connecticut where he played
center/tight end. In addition to being a member of
the football team, he also played lacrosse and
squash, serving as the captain of the lacrosse team
during his senior season. He is a member of Chi Psi
fraternity and graduated in 1975 with a degree in
economics.
