Kenneth Webster "Jack" Mollenkopf (November 24, 1903 – December 4, 1975) was the head

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

coach at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

from 1956 until 1969. Mollenkopf was also an assistant coach at Purdue from 1947 to 1955 under Stu Holcomb. Mollenkopf was a successful football coach competing at high school and college levels and is widely acknowledged as the greatest football coach in Purdue's history. While coaching high school, he led Toledo Waite to three national championships. Mollenkopf is Purdue's all-time leader in

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

wins (58) and conference winning percentage (.637). His 84 wins at Purdue placed him first on the school's all-time wins list until

Joe Tiller Joseph Henry Tiller (December 7, 1942 – September 30, 2017) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1991 to 1996 and Purdue University from 1997 to 2008, with a career record of know ...

passed him in 2008, and he ranks fourth in overall winning percentage (.670). Mollenkopf's Boilermakers were nationally ranked for 80 weeks, the most under any Purdue head coach, and captured the No. 1 spot the first five weeks of the 1968 season. On January 2, 1967, Mollenkopf coached the Purdue's first appearance in the Rose Bowl, leading the Boilermakers to a 14–13 victory over USC. Against Purdue's in-state rivals, Mollenkopf tallied an 11–2–1 record versus

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and a 10–4 mark against Notre Dame. From 1966 to 1969, a Purdue player finished in the top three in balloting for the Heisman Trophy:

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Bob Griese was second in 1966, halfback

Leroy Keyes Marvin Leroy Keyes (February 18, 1947 – April 15, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a running back and safety for five seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chie ...

placed third in 1967 and second in 1968, and quarterback

Mike Phipps Michael Elston Phipps (born January 19, 1947) is a former American college and professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Phipps played college footbal ...

finished as runner-up in 1969. Mollenkopf's inaugural season in 1956 was the only losing campaign of his tenure as head coach at Purdue. A prominent figure on the sidelines of postseason all-star games, Mollenkopf served as head coach of the 1958, 1959, and 1960

Blue–Gray Football Classic The Blue–Gray Football Classic was an annual American college football all-star game held in Alabama, usually in late December and often on Christmas Day. The brainchild of Alabama college football legend Champ Pickens, the contest began in ...

s; the 1962 and 1963 East–West Shrine Games; the 1964, 1967, and 1970

Hula Bowl The Hula Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game held annually, usually in January. From inception through the 2021 playing, it was held in Hawaii; since the 2022 edition, it has been played in Orlando, Florida. The game was first st ...

s; the 1968 All-American Bowl; and the 1969

North–South Shrine Game The North–South Shrine Game was an annual postseason college football all-star game played each December from 1948 to 1973 in Miami, and a final time in 1976 in Pontiac, Michigan. The game was sponsored by the fraternal group Shriners Interna ...

. Mollenkopf was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988; the Bowling Green State University Hall of Fame in 1965 and the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1975. In 1994, Coach Mollenkopf was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletic Hall of Fame. Mollenkopf died of cancer on December 4, 1975, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota .

Head coaching record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mollenkopf, Jack 1903 births 1975 deaths American football ends Bowling Green Falcons football players Purdue Boilermakers football coaches High school football coaches in Ohio Dallas Cowboys scouts College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Van Wert County, Ohio Deaths from cancer in Minnesota