Mel Tjeerdsma ( ; born May 24, 1946) is a retired

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 and athletic director at

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 ...

Maryville, Missouri Maryville is a city and county seat of Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. Located in the "Missouri Point" region, As of the 2020 census, the city population was 10,633. Maryville is home to Northwest Missouri State University and Northwes ...

. He served as the head coach at

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Sherman, Texas from 1984 to 1993 and at Northwest Missouri State University from 1994 until his retirement after the 2010 season. In his 27 years as a head coach, Tjeerdsma compiled a career

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record of 242–82–4. He led the

Northwest Missouri State Bearcats The Northwest Missouri State Bearcats are the athletic teams for Northwest Missouri State University, located in Maryville, Missouri. The Bearcats play in the NCAA Division II. Northwest is a founding member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Ath ...

to three

NCAA Division II Football Championship The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination tournament with eight teams. The tourna ...

titles (1998, 1999, and 2009) and four additional NCAA Division II titles games (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008).

Early life and education

Tjeerdsma was born and grew up on a farm in

Springfield, South Dakota Springfield is a city in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,914 at the 2020 census. As of 2012, about 1,200 of the residents were inmates at Mike Durfee State Prison. Springfield was named on account of there b ...

. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1964 and attended Southern State College in Springfield where he participated in several sports. Tjeerdsma earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from the college in 1967. He was a teacher and assistant football coach in

Akron, Iowa Akron is a city in Plymouth County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,558 at the 2020 census. History Akron was incorporated September 7, 1882. The town's name is a transfer from Akron, Ohio. Geography According to the United State ...

in 1968. He received his master's degree in physical education at Northwestern College in 1977.

Coaching career

Tjeerdsma coached at Sioux Center (Iowa) High School and in 1972 won the very first Class 2A State football championship. He went on to Denison High School in

Denison, Iowa Denison is a city in Crawford County, Iowa, United States, along the Boyer River, and located in both Denison Township and East Boyer Township. The population was 8,373 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Crawford County. ...

, where he guided his team to a 9–0 record in 1975 and a berth in the state playoffs. He earned Northwest Iowa Football Coach of the Year honors in 1972 and was the Northwest Iowa Track and Field Coach of the Year in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Tjeerdsma was the offensive coordinator at Northwestern College in

Orange City, Iowa Orange City is a city in, and the county seat of, Sioux County, Iowa, United States. Its population was 6,267 in the 2020 census, an increase from 5,582 in 2000. Named after William of Orange, the community maintains its Dutch settler traditio ...

for eight years. He was also the head track and field coach at Northwestern. The Red Raiders earned four trips to the NAIA Division II Playoffs while Tjeerdsma was there, including a national championship in 1983. His offense twice led the nation in total offense and scoring. His track and field teams won three Tri-State Conference titles and five consecutive NAIA District 15 indoor championships. Tjeerdsma was the head coach at

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Sherman, Texas from 1984 through 1993. He compiled a 59–39–4 record and was the school's winningest coach. Tjeerdsma guided Austin College to three Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships in 1984, 1985 and 1988 and made two trips to the NAIA Division II playoffs.

Northwest Missouri State

Before Tjeerdsma's arrival in 1994, Northwest Missouri State University experienced a series of problems. Missouri under Governor John Ashcroft had announced plans to close the school. The state had also balked at converting U.S. Route 71 to Maryville to a four-lane highway, even as it had converted the rest of the highway south of

Saint Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includ ...

to interstate standards. The Bearcats went 0–11 in Tjeerdsma's first year in 1994, finishing last in the

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen me ...

. In 1996, they made the playoffs for the first time since 1984. In 1998, the Bearcats won the

compiling a record of 15–0. It also marked the first time the Bearcats won a national championship in any sport. In 2005, the Bearcats were a Cinderella team being ranked 22nd at the start of the playoffs, but won four games on the road until reaching the finals where they faced

Grand Valley State Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale, Michigan. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids. The universi ...

. Oddly enough, the title game was the first time in the 2005 playoffs that the Bearcats played on the same field for a second time. They beat North Alabama in

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the week before. Northwest Missouri State led the game until the closing minutes and came within a dropped pass in the end zone in the closing seconds from a victory. The championships have rocketed Northwest into high visibility. The St. Louis Rams donated their private jet to the team to fly the Bearcats to the championship game in

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. When Tjeerdsma began his run, Northwest could not play some home playoff games to which it was entitled because of poor conditions at Rickenbrode Stadium. The stadium underwent a $5 million renovation including the additions of luxury boxes and a color replay video board. The renovated Rickenbrode Stadium opened in 2002. The stadium was renamed

Bearcat Stadium Bearcat Stadium (formerly Memorial Stadium and Rickenbrode Stadium) is the football stadium of the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats in Maryville, Missouri and is the oldest continuous site for any NCAA Division II school. It has a ca ...

in 2004 to honor the contributions of the many individuals and organizations who worked in the fundraising efforts. On August 23, 2007, the field at Bearcat Stadium was named Mel Tjeerdsma Field in the coach's honor. In 2006, Tjeerdsma was elected president of the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

Post retirement

In 2011, he was named head coach of the United States national American football team in the 2011 IFAF World Cup. In June 2011 he announced that he would join the development team in the Austin College Institutional Advancement Division in the fall of 2011, leading fundraising efforts for athletics enhancement. On March 21, 2013, Tjeerdsma was named the new athletic director at Northwest Missouri State University. Tjeerdsma retired on April 30, 2018.

Family

Tjeerdsma, his wife Carol reside in

. They have three grown children that are married.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tjeerdsma, Mel 1946 births Living people Austin Kangaroos football coaches Northwest Missouri State Bearcats athletic directors Northwest Missouri State Bearcats football coaches Northwestern Red Raiders football coaches High school football coaches in Iowa College Football Hall of Fame inductees Northwestern College (Iowa) alumni University of South Dakota–Springfield alumni People from Maryville, Missouri People from Springfield, South Dakota Coaches of American football from South Dakota