Fallon knew success as player and coach

Gary Fallon had a knack for rising to the top.

He did it as an athlete at Watertown High School and Syracuse University, and as a coach at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.

At WHS, Fallon excelled in football and basketball. He continued his athletic career at Manlius School, where he graduated in 1957, and at SU, where he graduated in 1962. He earned a master's degree from Syracuse in 1967.

In three years as a running back for the Orangemen, Fallon rushed for a total of 584 yards on 105 carries. He was a member of the 1959 national championship team, playing in the backfield behind Ernie Davis, an SU legend who won the 1961 Heisman Trophy. Syracuse defeated Texas, 23-14, on Jan. 1, 1960, in the Cotton Bowl to wrap up the '59 title.

Fallon, who also wrestled and played lacrosse for Syracuse, also helped the Orangemen to a 15-14 win over Miami in the 1961 Liberty Bowl.

The NFL's Minnesota Vikings drafted Fallon in the 12th round of the 1962 draft. The Vikings, though, cut him in August, before the start of the '62 season. Fallon later had stints with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats and Toronto Argonauts.

He then moved on to coaching, serving as an assistant Ithaca College and Princeton University before arriving at Washington and Lee in 1978. In 17 seasons as the head coach for the Generals, Fallon produced a 77-84-1 record, establishing a team record for all-time coaching wins, a mark that still stands.

With the Generals, he won Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships in 1981 and '85. He was ODAC Coach of the Year in 1981, '88 and '92

Fallon died of a heart attack on April 29, 1995. He was 56.

After Fallon's death, former Watertown athletic director Charles Woodell told the Times: "He was probably the best football player that Watertown's ever seen. It's a great loss to the game of football. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. I had a great deal of respect for him."

Fallon was a 2001 inductee into the Washington and Lee University Athletic Hall of Fame.

To read about previous selections to the Times' list of the North Country's Greatest 100 Athletes of All-Time, log on to www.watertowndailytimes.com