Randolph "Randy" Logan (born May 1, 1951) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

player. He played 11 seasons as a

free safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dutie ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

from 1973 to 1983. He was a second-team All-NFL player in 1980, and his streak of 159 consecutive games is the second longest in Eagles history. Logan played college football at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1970 to 1972 where he was selected as a consensus first-team defensive back on the

1972 College Football All-America Team The 1972 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1972. The National Collegiate Athletic Asso ...

Early years

Logan was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, in 1951. He attended Northern High School in Detroit. He was the first football player from his school to win a scholarship to a

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conferen ...

university.

University of Michigan

Logan enrolled at the

in 1969 and played college football for coach Bo Schembechler's

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for it ...

teams from 1970 to 1972. As a sophomore, he played as a backup at the wingback position and carried the ball six times for 27 yards, an average of 4.5 yards per carry. As a junior, Logan started 11 games at

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their duti ...

for the

1971 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1971 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1971 Big Ten Conference football season. In their third season under head coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines compiled ...

that gave up only 83 points (6.9 points per game) and finished with an 11-1 record, going undefeated in the regular season before losing to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, 13-12, in the

1972 Rose Bowl The 1972 Rose Bowl was the 58th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, January 1. The Stanford Indians of the Pacific-8 Conference upset the undefeated and fourth-ranked Mic ...

. Logan had 63 tackles during the 1971 season, including a career-high 12 tackles in the 1971 season opener against Northwestern. As a senior, Logan was the co-captain and starter in all 12 games at the "wolfman" position (a linebacker/safety hybrid) for the

1972 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1972 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1972 Big Ten Conference football season. In their fourth season under head coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines compile ...

that finished the season with a 10-1 record. During the 1972 season, Logan had 45 tackles, four interceptions and two fumble recoveries. At the end of the season, Logan was selected as the most valuable player on the 1972 Michigan football team. He was also selected as a consensus first-team

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

on the

. He received first-team honors from the

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the ...

, the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "maint ...

, the

Walter Camp Football Foundation The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The organization also presents various awards. It is named in honor of foo ...

, and ''

Football News A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best co ...

''. Mike McCormack, the

coach who selected Logan in the NFL Draft, recalled watching tapes of Logan at Michigan: "I watched every game on tape, and I never saw the kid out of position. And when he hit, he made their heads snap."

Professional football

Logan was selected by the

in the third round (55th overall pick) of the 1973 NFL Draft. As a rookie during the

1973 NFL season The 1973 NFL season was the 54th regular season of the National Football League. The season was highlighted by O. J. Simpson becoming the first player to rush for 2,000 yards in one season. The season ended with Super Bowl VIII when the Mia ...

, he was the Eagles' starting strong safety in all 14 games and had five interception with 38 interception return yards. Logan remained with the Eagles for his entire NFL career, playing 11 seasons with the team from 1973 to 1983. Logan was one of the few players retained by the team after

Dick Vermeil Richard Albert Vermeil (; born October 30, 1936) is a former American football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles for seven seasons, the St ...

took over as head coach in 1976. According to Ray Didinger in ''The Eagles Encyclopedia'', Logan was "part of the nucleus Vermeil built around as he changed the Eagles from sad sacks to winners." He started all 16 games at free safety for the 1980 Philadelphia Eagles team that compiled a 12-4 record, won the NFC Championship, and lost to the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

Super Bowl XV Super Bowl XV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

. He was selected by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

and

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as a second-team All-NFL defensive back at the end of the

1980 NFL season The 1980 NFL season was the 61st regular season of the National Football League. Prior to the season in March 1980, fellow NFL owners voted against the proposed move by the Raiders from Oakland, California to Los Angeles. Raiders team owner A ...

. Logan was known as a tough and durable player, appearing in 159 consecutive games for the Eagles—the second longest consecutive game streak in Eagles' history behind

Harold Carmichael Lee Harold Carmichael (born September 22, 1949) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles (1971–1983) and one season for ...

. Logan also totaled 23 interceptions and 293 interception return yards in his career with the Eagles.

Later years

After retiring from football, Logan worked as the Principal of the school department, at Saint Gabriel's Secondary School, a residential facility in

Audubon, Pennsylvania Audubon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was named for naturalist John James Audubon, who lived there as a young man. The population was 8,433 at the 2010 census. Geography Audubon is loc ...

, for teenage boys who had been adjudicated delinquent. He worked beside his long time wife, who also worked as a Teacher in the Catholic Boys Detention Center Philadelphia Rappers M-I-Corleone & The Late General Reezy (RIP) Fight Was "Squashed" by Randy Logan and told by M-I-Corleone on his Learn As You GROW Show Podcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, Randy 1951 births Living people American football safeties Michigan Wolverines football players Philadelphia Eagles players All-American college football players Northern High School (Detroit, Michigan) alumni Players of American football from Detroit