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The Toledo City Athletic League has inducted former Waite athlete and college football coach Jerry L. Berndt into its Hall of Fame. Berndt is one of five Waite graduates inducted.
Berndt attended East Side Central land Raymer elementary schools before graduating from Waite in 1957. Berndt participated in football, basketball, and baseball, achieving All-City honors in football during the 1956 City championship year.
After graduating from Waite, Berndt attended the University of Wisconsin-Superior, earning varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and tennis. In 1959, he garnered all-conference honors in football in 1960. He transferred to Bowling Green State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education Degree in 1962.
From 1962-65 Berndt taught biology and coached football and wrestling at Libbey. From 1965-67, he taught biology at Bedford in Temperance, Michigan and coached football, wrestling, and golf.
During his tenure at Bedford, Berndt attended the University of Toledo under a National Science Institute Grant, and in 1968, worked as a graduate assistant at UT to complete his Master of Science in Education Degree.
Berndt was appointed the head football coach and golf at Streetsboro High School, where he taught health education. Following his 1969 season, he began his college coaching career at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. During his eight years as an assistant, Dartmouth won or tied for the Ivy League championship four times.
In 1979, Berndt was appointed head football coach at Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. During the 1980 campaign, the Tigers had its most successful season in 10 years. Returning to the Ivy League in 1981, he became head coach at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During his five-year tenure, Berndt’s football teams won four consecutive Ivy League championships. Berndt was chosen Ivy League Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1984. His 1982 team was recognized for having the best turnaround in the nation in Division I-AA. In 1985, Berndt was selected as the Marine Corps Sportsman of the Year.
Berndt was appointed athletic director and head football coach at Rice University in Houston in 1986. During his three years at Rice, he served as the chairman of the Southwest Conference Drug Education Committee and was a member of the UPI Coaches Poll Committee and the NCAA Athletic Admissions Committee of the President’s Commission.
In 1989, Berndt returned to Philadelphia as head coach at Temple University. His 1990 Temple team was noted for the best turnaround in the nation for a D-I-A team. Coach Berndt received the New York football writers’ and the Mizzlou Sports Network’s national coach of the year awards. The Maxwell Football Club also selected him as a special award recipient. Following the ’91 season, Berndt coached in the East-West Shrine Game in Palo Alto, California.
From 1994-99, Berndt was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at the University of Missouri in Columbia. During this time, Missouri participated in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and in the Insight.com Bowl in Tucson. Berndt coached the All-Big 12 quarterback of 1997; a team that produced the most points in the history of Missouri football. Following the ’98 season, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the All-America Football Foundation.
During his college coaching career, Berndt served on the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy and was a member of the board of directors of Literacy Volunteer of America in Philadelphia. He served as a trustee of Pop Warner Youth Football and was a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. He served as the first chair of the Big East Football Coaches Association and was a member of the NCAA Recruiting, Football Rules, and Lombardi Award Committee. As a member of the American Football Coaches Association, Coach Berndt served on the Ethics, Nominating, Publicity, and Registration Committees
Berndt married the former Patricia Perry, also a 1957 Waite grad. They are now retired and reside on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, play lots of golf, enjoy their family, and keep track of all of their favorite football teams. They have three children: daughters Jodie and Jamie and son Jeffrey. Their eight grandchildren, three grandson and five granddaughters, range in age from 7 to 27. The eldest grandson recently returned from his second deployment to Iraq.
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