After reading this Inquirer article, I found out that NFL coach of the year Sean Payton grew up just down West Chester Pike in Newtown Square.
He was raised on Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Bernie
Parent, and played deck hockey as well as the real thing on an icy pond
down a hill from his house in Newtown Square. He giddily watched the
Flyers win the 1974 Stanley Cup, and then actually attended the parade
when they won it again in '75.But Sean Payton relished his role of quarterback and linebacker for
the Marple Newtown Junior Bengals. As a child, he chose football, and
now that he is a man, that choice seems so right.
After checking out Payton's profile on Saints.com and a little Googling, Payton jumped around a lot. It says he was raised in Naperville, IL, but another article says he spent his "formative years" in Newtown Square and later attended Eastern Illinois to play QB. Regardless of where his career has taken him, he has roots in the Delaware Valley and was QB coach for the Birds in '97-'98
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>>Building new hometown heroes [Inquirer]
>>Coach Bio [NewOrleansSaints]
>>Saints coach Payton driven to succeed [2theadvocate]