Harold W. Kopp (January 19, 1909 – May 10, 1998) 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. He served as the head football coach at the
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...
,
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
(BYU), and
Bentley University
Bentley University is a private university focused on business, accountancy, and finance and located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Bentley moved to Waltham ...
, compiling a career
college football record of 51–39–6.
At Rhode Island, Kopp led the Rams to three
Yankee Conference
The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a American football, football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is ...
titles in five seasons (two shared, one outright). When they won their first title in 1952, it was the first championship in the Rhode Island football program's history. In 1955, he led them to the program's first bowl game, the
Refrigerator Bowl, where the Rams lost, 12–10, to
Jacksonville State.
As the coach of the
BYU Cougars football team, Kopp produced winning records in his last two seasons, but was dismissed from the university when rumors surfaced that he had committed a potential
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 ...
rules infraction. From 1964 to 1970 Kopp was head football coach at
Waltham High School
Waltham High School is a public high school located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is the only high school operated by Waltham Public Schools.
History
The current Waltham High School was constructed in 1968 and expanded in 1998 a ...
. The team went undefeated in 1965. Kopp was also the first-ever head coach for the Bentley Falcons football program when he took the reins in 1972. He coached there for four seasons.
Kopp was author of a book titled ''I've Seen It All''. He died on May 10, 1998.
Head coaching record
College
References
1909 births
1998 deaths
Bentley Falcons football coaches
Boston University Terriers football coaches
Brown Bears football coaches
Harvard Crimson football coaches
McDaniel Green Terror football players
Northeastern Huskies football coaches
Rhode Island Rams football coaches
UConn Huskies football coaches
Yale Bulldogs football coaches
High school football coaches in Massachusetts
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