Football Hall of Fame

Rick Venturi was born to play and coach football, a passion that led him to two head coaching positions in the National Football League. After an All-State season as quarterback at Pekin High School in 1963, Rick went on to earn two varsity letters at Northwestern University before jumping into coaching. He spent four years as an assistant at Northwestern, then became defensive coordinator at Purdue and defensive backs coach at Illinois before returning to his college alma mater as head coach from 1978-80. He would go on to assistant coaching positions with Hamilton of the Canadian Football League, as well as the NFL’s Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams. During organizational shakeups, Rick served as interim head coach of the Colts in 1991 and the Saints in 1996. Rick stepped out of coaching after the 2008 season and into the broadcast booth. At the time of his induction, he served as color analyst for radio broadcasts of Colts games.