Charles E. Cowdrey (November 16, 1933 – January 18, 2011) 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 with ...

coach. Cowdrey served as a head high school coach for nine years, head coach at Fort Scott Community College for three years, assistant coach at

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

for eight years, head coach at Illinois State University for four years, assistant coach at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hi ...

for one year, and head coach at Southwestern College for nine years. His overall record as a head coach including high school coaching is 138 wins, 85 losses, 6 ties, and as a college head coach he achieved a record of 81 wins, 86 losses, and 4 ties.Fort Scott Community College Athletic Hall of Fame

Early life

Cowdrey was born in Camden Point, Missouri, received a bachelor's degree in physical education from

Northwest Missouri State University Northwest Missouri State University is a public university in Maryville, Missouri. It has an enrollment of about 8,505 students. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, its campus is based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis Worl ...

and a master's degree from the

. Cowdrey began his career as a coach at Smithville High School from 1957 to 1966. He then at Fort Scott Community College from 1966 to 1969 and then was an assistant coach the

from 1969 to 1977.

Coaching career

Illinois State

Cowdrey was the 16th head football coach for the

Illinois State Redbirds The Illinois State Redbirds are the athletic teams that represent Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Teams play at the NCAA Division I level ( FCS in football). The football team competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference wh ...

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, and he held that position for four seasons, from 1977 until 1980. His overall coaching record at ISU was 12 wins, 31 losses, and 1 tie. This ranks him 11th at ISU in terms of total wins and 17th at ISU in terms of winning percentage. Charlie Cowdrey became perhaps the only football coach in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

history to be fired less than 24 hours after his team had scored a major upset.

Southwestern College

From 1983 to 1991, he was the 23rd head coach for the

Southwestern College Moundbuilders The Southwestern Moundbuilders are the athletic teams that represent Southwestern College, located in Winfield, Kansas, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing i ...

Winfield, Kansas Winfield is a city and county seat of Cowley County, Kansas, United States. It is situated along the Walnut River in South Central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,777. It is home to Southwestern College. Hi ...

, where he compiled a record of 59 wins and 34 losses with 1 tie, taking over the program from famed football coach Dennis Franchione. He held the position for nine season and became the 7th most successful coach at Southwestern College in terms of winning percentage (65.2%) and second in terms of total number of wins with 59. Cowdrey took his teams to two separate

bowl game 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 ...

s, coaching half of the post-season bowls in school history. Both appearances were in the

Sunflower Bowl The Sunflower Bowl was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics post-season college football bowl game played in Winfield, Kansas from 1982 to 1986. Game results See also * List of college bowl games The following is a list of curr ...

, and the team lost both times. But 1984 was the first year that Southwestern qualified for the

NAIA Football National Championship The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football National Championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best NAIA college football teams in the United States. Under sponsorship of the National Associa ...

. The first round the team defeated conference rival

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

17–14, and then lost to Northwestern College by a score of 45-23. About being fired from the post, his son Bruce Cowdrey (also a football coach) related this story: :''"A long time ago, my dad, Charlie Cowdrey (former Illinois State coach) was coaching Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., when I asked him how he felt about being fired, ... he said, ‘When I came here, the first school president loved me. The second one didn't like football. The third one, he fired the chaplain. So I knew I was next.'"''

Morningside College

After Southwestern, Cowdrey became the head coach at Morningside College in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

from 1993 through the 1995 season. His teams at Morningside produce 5 wins, 26 losses, and 2 ties during his three years as head coach.College Football Data Warehouse
Charlie Cowdrey

Death

Cowdrey died on January 18, 2011, at his home in Winfield.

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdrey, Charlie 1933 births 2011 deaths Drake Bulldogs football coaches Illinois State Redbirds football coaches Missouri Tigers football coaches Morningside Mustangs football coaches Southwestern Moundbuilders football coaches Fort Scott Greyhounds football coaches High school football coaches in Kansas High school football coaches in Missouri Northwest Missouri State University alumni University of Missouri alumni University of Missouri faculty People from Platte County, Missouri