William R. Hess (February 5, 1923 – June 10, 1978) was an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

from 1958 to 1977. In his tenure as head coach for the

Ohio Bobcats football The Ohio Bobcats football team is a major intercollegiate varsity sports program of Ohio University. The team represents the university as the senior member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC), playing at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdi ...

team, Hess compiled a 108–91–4 record. He ranked second on Ohio's all-time victories list behind Hall of Famer

Don Peden Don C. Peden (December 30, 1898 – February 23, 1970) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Ohio University from 1924 to 1946, compiling a record of 121 wins, 46 losses and 11 draws Peden' ...

at the time of his retirement, though he has since been passed by

Frank Solich Frank Thomas Solich (born September 8, 1944) is a former American football coach and former player. He is the former head coach at Ohio University, a position he held from 2005 until 2021. From 1998 to 2003, Solich served as the head coach at th ...

. Hess's teams won four

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) championships (1960, 1963, 1967, and 1968) and won a National Small College Championship in 1960 after having an undefeated season. Hess also led the Bobcats to two

bowl games In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

, losing 15–14 to West Texas State in the 1962 Sun Bowl and losing 49–42 to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in the 1968 Tangerine Bowl. His 1968 team is the only team in school history to finish ranked in the major polls. Hess was a native of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. He coached

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Grandview Heights, Ohio Grandview Heights, or simply Grandview, is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 8,085 at the 2020 census. The city was originally part of Marble Cliff, one of the first suburbs of Columbus, which settled as a comm ...

before joining

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

's staff at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1951.

Head coaching record

References

1923 births 1978 deaths Ohio Bobcats football coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches High school football coaches in Ohio Sportspeople from Columbus, Ohio {{1950s-collegefootball-coach-stub