Steve Logan was head football coach from 1992-2002. With a 69-58 record, Logan established himself as the winningest coach in the history of East Carolina football. Logan’s teams went to five bowl games, winning two. These bowl games included the 1994 Liberty Bowl, the 1995 Liberty Bowl, the 1999 Mobile Alabama Bowl, the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl, and the 2001 GMAC Bowl, the last two of which ECU won. Three of Logan’s quarterbacks; Jeff Blake, Marcus Crandell, and David Garrard went on to pro careers.
Logan was first hired in 1989 as assistant coach to Bill Lewis. Before arriving at ECU, he had coached at Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, and Colorado. The year after coming to ECU, Logan was name offensive coordinator. In that capacity, he helped the 1991 team achieve the most successful season in decades, finishing with an 11-1 overall record, and then defeating NC State at the Peach Bowl in a comeback, 37-34 victory. Following Lewis’s departure to become head coach at Georgia Tech, Logan was named ECU head coach. Logan’s 1995 team was exceptional, finishing with a 9–3 record and a No. 23 ranking in the final Associated Press poll. In 1999, he led the Pirates to victory over the Miami Hurricanes at Carter–Finley Stadium in Raleigh. That game had to be played in Raleigh because Hurricane Floyd had recently devastated Greenville, preventing competition at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Later the same year, the Pirates, led by Logan, defeated NC State, 23-6, at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, in the regular season finale for both teams in what was called “the biggest event to ever happen east of Interstate 95.” The 1999 ECU-NC State game drew the then largest crowd ever at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The same year the Pirates, having ended with a 9–3 record and a bowl game, won the ESPN Spirit Award.
Logan’s contract was terminated, however, in 2002 after the Pirate football team went 4-8, ending up in fifth place in the American Athletic Conference ranking. The 2002 season was the worst in ECU’s six years of AAC play. Logan went on to coaching positions in the NFL Europe, at Boston College, in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and, most recently, as quarterback coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Despite being terminated in 2002, Logan has remained one of the most popular coaches in ECU football history. He was inducted into the ECU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. The following year as part of a celebration of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium’s Fiftieth Anniversary, Pirate fans voted Logan “the all-time head coach” of the football team.
Sources
- Droschak, David. “East Carolina offense looks explosive this season.” Asheville Citizen-Times. August 10, 2000. P. 36.
- “ECU Fires Football Coach Logan.” The Washington Post. December 8, 2002. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2002/12/08/ecu-fires-football-coach-logan/5140c590-1508-49ae-aefa-7b7bfcd2ab41/?utm_term=.ab1d2eb00104.
- Haines, Brian. “Former ECU Coach Logan excited about return to NFL.” The News and Observer. January 30, 2015. http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/aac/east-carolina-university/article10238288.html.
- Katski, Greg. “The Savior of ECU Football.” The East Carolinian. March 8, 2007. http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/article_79005c12-422d-5c01-8445-acb4bb059d69.html.
- “Logan out as East Carolina coach.” Asheville Citizen-Times. December 8, 2002. P. 50.
- Peeler, Tim. “The History behind the NC State-East Carolina Rivalry.” The Wolfpacker. September 9, 2016. https://ncstate.rivals.com/news/the-history-behind-the-nc-state-east-carolina-rivalry.
- “Steve Logan Voted All-Time Head Coach by Pirate Nation.” ECUPirates.com. August 5, 2013. https://ecupirates.com/news/2013/8/5/steve_logan_voted_all_time_head_coach_by_pirate_nation.aspx.
Citation Information
Title: Steve Logan
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 6/25/2019