Billy Alton is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He served as interim head coach at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

following the firing of Bill Michael two games into the 1981 season. Alton compiled a 1–8 record and was replaced with

Bill Yung Bill Yung (born 1934) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at West Texas State University—now West Texas A&M University—from 1977 to 1981 and at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 1982 to 1985 ...

soon after the season ended. His team's lone win was a 35 to 29 home victory over

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

on October 24, 1981. Alton attended Beth Center High School in Frederickstown, Pennsylvania, where he was involved in many sports. He then attended

University of West Virginia West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

where he played on a baseball team as a pitcher and catcher, captaining the squad his final two seasons. He attended one semester of law school before dropping out to become an athletic recruiter for his alma mater. Alton got his coaching career started at West Virginia-Wesleyan coaching both football and baseball before moving to

California University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Western University, California (commonly known as PennWest California) is a public university campus in California, Pennsylvania and one of three campuses of Pennsylvania Western University, part of the Pennsylvania State System o ...

for the next two seasons. He then coached at Lenoir-Rhyne,

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

, before becoming an assistant at UTEP. After only two games as defensive coordinator, Alton was tabbed as interim head coach after the firing of Bill Michael. After the 1981 season, Alton applied for the UTEP job but it was given to Bill Yung. He was then the wide receivers coach at West Virginia. Alton became the supervisor of football officials for the

West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pe ...

in 2009.

Head coaching record

Notes

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people UTEP Miners football coaches {{1980s-collegefootball-coach-stub