Ex-DelState football coach Al Lavan dies

Al Lavan, who coached Delaware State to its last MEAC football title in 2007, died Monday in Colorado, DSU announced.

That title led to the first meeting ever in football between Delaware State and Delaware, a 44-7 Blue Hens win in the NCAA FCS playoffs that attracted 19,765 fans to Delaware Stadium, one of the largest crowds in playoff history, on Nov. 23, 2007.

The game was nationally televised. It remains DSU's lone NCAA football playoff appearance.

 Lavan was DSU football coach from 2004 to 2010 and was inducted into the Delaware State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013. His teams went 41-37 overall and 34-21 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

In 2007, the Hornets were 10-2 overall and went 8-0 to win the school’s first MEAC championship in 16 years. The 10 wins remain a DSU record. The Hornets were ranked as high as 10th nationally and finished the season 15th in The Sports Network poll.

The American Sports Wire named the Hornets 2007 Black College national champions and Lavan was 2007 Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., coach of the year. He was second in the voting for the national FCS coach of the year.

In 2005, Lavan guided Delaware State to a 7-4 record (6-2 MEAC). DSU was then 8-3 in 2006 with a 6-2 conference mark and earned the school’s first national ranking since 1992.

He was fired when his last three teams went 12-20.

Before becoming DSU head coach, Lavan spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan, including going 2-1 as interim head coach to close the 2003 season.

Lavan spent 18 years as an NFL assistant with the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, including being on George Seifert’s 1990 Super Bowl champion 49ers staff.

He held other collegiate coaching positions at Colorado State, Louisville, Iowa State, Georgia Tech, Stanford and Washington.

Lavan played at Colorado State and in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons.