Jack Cosgrove, the winningest coach in University of Maine football history, enters his eighth season as the head coach of the Colby College football program in the 2025-26 academic year.
Cosgrove, head coach for the Black Bears for 23 years, took over at Colby on January 8, 2018.
Cosgrove is the 41st head coach since the Colby football program started in 1892, but only the seventh since 1967. Since stepping aside from the Black Bears in November 2015, Cosgrove has been the senior associate director of athletics at University of Maine.
Cosgrove's tenure in Orono included 129 career wins, the most in University of Maine football history, five NCAA postseason appearances, and 20 All-American selections. The Black Bears won a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title in 2013 and Atlantic 10 championships in 2001 and 2002.
While Cosgrove's teams had success on the field, he also recruited and guided students to academic success. The Black Bears had numerous CAA All-Academic honors and two CAA Student-Athlete of the Year selections.
Cosgrove comes to Mayflower Hill at a time of great momentum and progress for athletics. Colby has long supported a healthy and active community—more than a third of its students are varsity athletes and about 90 percent participate in fitness activities and club sports. A new, 350,000-square foot athletics complex is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2020. An outdoor competition center, including three new fields and a baseball-softball complex, was finished and opened officially in September. Colby teams led by top coaches have had impressive showings in the past two years, with dominant success by teams including women’s lacrosse, men’s rugby and women’s rugby (recently ranked 7th in the nation).
Cosgrove, a native of Sharon, Mass., started his Maine football career as a quarterback for the University in 1974, throwing for 2,836 career yards before graduating in 1978. He was a graduate assistant coach for the team while earning his master's degree in educational administration in 1981.
After four years coaching high school football in Stoughton, Mass., Cosgrove returned to the college level as an offensive assistant at Boston College. He headed north to Orono as an offensive assistant in 1987, and never left, taking over the Black Bear program in 1993.
Cosgrove and his wife, Marilyn, have four children: Jeri, twins Matthew and Carly, and Sydni.
Cosgrove File
New head coach at Colby College – Jan. 8, 2017
23 seasons as head coach at UMaine
129 career wins, most in UMaine football history
3 NCAA playoff victories
20 All-Americans coached
3 NFL Draft picks
3 Buck Buchanan Award finalists (FCS Defensive Player of the Year)
2013 Maine Sports Hall of Fame Inductee
George C. Carens Award for lifetime contributions to New England football
2013, 2008, 2001 Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year finalist
2013 — CAA Coach of the Year & American Football Coaches Association FCS Region 1 Co-Coach of the Year, Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Bowl/Championship Division Head Coach of the Year,
2013 & 2011 New England Football Writers FCS Coach of the Year
2001 & 1996 — Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year
