Football Hall of Fame

Once a star quarterback at Metamora High School, Pat Ryan in 1990 returned to his alma mater as head football coach and began a 30-year era of dominance. He coached the Redbirds to seven Illinois High School Association state championship games, winning the Class 5A title in 2007 and the Class 4A crown in 2009. His teams won 19 Mid-Illini Conference championships and advanced to the state playoffs 24 times. With a coaching style built on punishing ground games, elusive quarterbacks and lines filled with physical mismatches, Ryan compiled a 268-76 won-lost record. In a 16-year stretch from 1995-2010, Metamora won 102 games and lost only five in the Mid-Illini. During that stretch, the Redbirds reached the state quarterfinals 14 times, the semifinals 11 times and the title game seven times. Ryan’s Redbirds were point-scoring machines, breaking the school scoring record 13 times, with a best of 671 points in the 2007 state championship campaign.