Jack Andre, who took PHS to title game, dies at age 79

Former Patterson High football coach Jack Andre, the architect of the Lumberjacks’ 1979 state finals run to the Superdome, passed away Tuesday. He was 79.
Andre had two stints at Patterson, coaching from the 1978 through 1981 seasons and again from the 1987 through 1989 seasons, according to The Daily Review. He led the Lumberjacks during the days when Lumberjack legend and former New Orleans Saint Dalton Hilliard played for the squad.
On his arrival, he turned the fortunes around of a program that, according to The Daily Review, had not had a winning season in 17 years.
During his first season, Patterson finished 9-2, falling to Loranger in the first round of the playoffs 19-14. He followed that up with a 1979 state runner-up appearance where the squad lost to John Curtis 28-0.
“That’s where the legacy started when he came in, just changing the scheme up of the offense and defense and changing practices,” said former middle linebacker Eddie Darce of the Lumberjacks’ success that has followed.
Darce played on Andre’s team in 1978 and said the coach brought structure as well as a weight training program to the Lumberjacks.
“When Andre came, you had the summer program,” Darce said. “You went in and you weight trained and you weight trained after practice during the season, and it helped.”
It certainly did as the Lumberjacks flipped their regular season record from 1-9 the previous year into 9-1 in 1978 in Andre’s first season after coming from Jeanerette. Their lone regular-season loss was a five-point setback to E.D. White.
Following the 1979 season, Andre was named the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Class 2A Coach of the Year. Hilliard was named the 2A Offensive Most Valuable Player.
Patterson High School Principal Lane Larive described Andre as “really a no-nonsense coach.” Larive played for Andre during Larive’s first three seasons before Andre left for Istrouma.
“He was big on the details,” Larive said. “He always was looking for leadership amongst the players.”
Andre was big on fundamentals, and Larive recalled the way Andre ran practice.
“His practices were very, very structured and detailed,” Larive said. “I remember him telling us ‘you’re going to do this 1,000 times at practice to do it one time in a game,’ and that’s really what we did.”
At Leesville during his first stint, he coached Eddie Fuller, who went on to play at LSU and in the NFL, according to Wampuscatfootballhistory.com, a website devoted to Leesville football history.
After coaching the Patterson football teams from the 1987 through 1989 seasons, he returned to Leesville in 1990, according to The Daily Review.
At the time of his departure from Patterson the second time, he had been a head coach for 27 years and made the playoffs five times in seven years at Patterson, according to The Daily Review.
Andre is a member of the Louisiana High School Hall of Fame.