Len Jankiewicz

Len Jankiewicz

Len Jankiewicz grew up in Lancaster and was a member of the high school football program as a player and coach for over four decades. He lettered in both football and baseball at Lancaster, playing under legendary gridiron coach Joe Foyle before graduating in 1969.

As a baseball first baseman, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, but decided to go on to Brockport (NY) State where he played football and baseball and majored in math education. He was inducted into the Western NY Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

He returned home to Western New York in 1973 and taught school in Clarence for two years before returning to Lancaster HS as a classroom teacher and assistant football coach from 1974 to 1985 under coach Foyle. He became head coach in 1986 and posted a 143-93-2 (.610) record during his 26-year career while leading the Redskins to six league titles and nine appearances in the Section VI championship game. Sixteen of his players were selected first team All-Western New York during his coaching tenure.

Len took over as Lancaster’s athletic director in 1993 and supervised an extensive renovation of the school’s athletic facilities, including the construction of a 31,000 square foot multi-purpose field house over the next 18 years. He added eight teams to the school’s already large offering of interscholastic athletic programs. In honor of his exemplary service as AD, the school named the upgraded facilities “The Jankiewicz Athletic Complex” in 2012. He received the Gordon Bukaty Memorial Award for the ”Athletic Administrator of the Year” in 2006 and the Section VI Athletic Administrator Award in 2007.

After spending more than 40 years with Lancaster HS, he retired in 2012.  After retirement, he helped establish the Western New York Amateur Football Alliance, an organization that promotes amateur football at the youth level, high school and local college level.  He initiated the WNY Junior Football Combine for high school football players so they could demonstrate their skills before college coaches as well as a “College Night”, where graduating high school football players and their parents have a chance to meet college coaches from the tri-state area.  He is a charter member and officer in the Western NY High School Football Coaches Association and received the John D. Burns Award for “continuous dedication, loyalty, commitment, longevity, contributions and service to high school football”.

Len has also spent his retirement years working in radio and television for Spectrum Sports and Pegula Entertainment, and has helped to organize annual football coaching clinics for youth league and high school football coaches.

Len and his wife Robin live in Lancaster.

The biographies contained on this website were written at the time of the honoree's induction into the Hall of Fame. No attempt has been made to update these narratives to reflect more recent events, activities, or statistics.