Bob Cope (November 6, 1936 – August 3, 1997) was an
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 wi ...
coach. In a 32-year career, he served as assistant coach at
Vanderbilt,
SMU,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
,
Ole Miss,
Purdue,
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
,
USC,
Baylor, and
Kansas State
Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...
. During his career, he coached 23 nationally ranked defenses and participated in eight bowl games.
A native of
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...
, he played college football at
Carson–Newman College, and was induced posthumously into the Carson–Newman Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Cope was an assistant coach at University of Pacific for
Chester Caddas in the early 1970s. His only stint as head coach came at Pacific (1983–1988), where he had a 22–46 record.
Cope was diagnosed with cancer in September 1996. He died at Mercy Health Center in
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 c ...
.
Head coaching record
References
1936 births
1997 deaths
Arkansas Razorbacks football coaches
Baylor Bears football coaches
Carson–Newman Eagles football players
Kansas State Wildcats football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Pacific Tigers football coaches
SMU Mustangs football coaches
USC Trojans football coaches
Vanderbilt Commodores football coaches
People from Chattanooga, Tennessee
Players of American football from Tennessee
Deaths from cancer in Kansas
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