Chet O’Neill was a college assistant coach for eighteen years with stops at Hofstra, Colgate and Harvard, and then had a fifteen year career as a sales rep for Champion Products, Inc. In October, 1994 he formed Chet O’Neill Associates, Inc., a manufacturer’s rep organization, specializing in athletic sales and imprinted/embroidered apparel for Corporate, Restaurants, School Stores and Police/Fire Departments, etc.

Chet is a native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he played at Pawtucket West High School (now Shea HS) for the late “Win” Dodge and Tilo Margarita, earning All-League lineman honors two years and All-State in 1952. After a tour of duty in the Army he enrolled at Hofstra, where he started for three years at guard and linebacker, for the legendary “Howdy” Myers, and received the “Outstanding Lineman Award” his last two years. He co-captained the undefeated 1959 team, and also the 1960 Lacrosse squad, where he started for three years on Defense.

Immediately following graduation in 1960, Chet joined the Hofstra staff as Head Line Coach., and as Assistant Lacrosse Coach. In 1964 he accepted the position of defensive line coach from Coach Hal Lahar at Colgate University. In 1968 he switched to the offensive line and became Chief Assistant / Offensive Coordinator his last two years on the Red Raider staff under Head Coach Neil Wheelwright. While at Colgate, Chet also served as Head Lacrosse coach for two years. In 1972, he joined Joe Restic’s Harvard staff and was Defensive Line Coach and Defensive Coordinator when the Crimson won the 1975 Ivy League Championship.

In 1988, Chet was inducted as a Special Recipient into the Rhode Island High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame, and in 1993 into the Providence Gridiron Club Hall of Fame, and has served on their Board of Directors. Chet is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Gridiron Coach Magazine, and the Executive Board of the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. He received the Chapter’s Frank Morey Contribution to Amateur Football Award in 2004 at the Chapter’s annual Golden Dozen Awards Dinner.

Chet and his wife, Vilma, reside on Cape Cod in the village of Centerville. They have two children, a daughter Sherry who resides in Springfield, and a son Kenny, the clinic President, who along with his wife, Kim, reside in Centerville, and manage the registration desk at the clinic. Chet and Vilma have one granddaughter, Michele, who resides in Broad Brook, CT., with her husband Dan Belisle, and they added baby “Josie” to our family this past August.

The son of the Director, Kenny O’Neill, assumed the Presidency of the BIG NEW ENGLAND FOOTBALL CLINIC, INC. in January, 1999. Kenny is a commuter airline Captain for ISLAND AIRLINES based at the Barnstable County Airport in Hyannis, MA. He pilots the twin engine Cessna 402’s on scheduled flights between Hyannis and Nantucket, as well charter flights in the northeast. He has over 15,000 flight hours to his credit and formally worked as a flight instructor at Long Island’s McArthur Airport and New Bedford Airport, MA., prior to becoming a commuter airline pilot, first with PBA, then with ISLAND AIRLINES.

In 1975, he played linebacker for the Milford (MA.) High School Central Mass Super Bowl Champions, a team that featured a “pretty good” tackle by the name of Howie Long. He also played defense in hockey for the now defunct Tri-Valley Squires in the New England Junior A Hockey League. Following his graduation from Milford in 1976, Kenny attended UMASS. He and his wife, Kim, manage the registration desk during the clinic, and reside in Centerville, MA.