Victor Rowen (July 24, 1919 – January 14, 2013) 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 ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at

Defiance College Defiance College is a private college located in Defiance, Ohio and affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The campus includes eighteen buildings and access to the Thoreau Wildlife Sanctuary. History The college began as Defiance Female ...

from 1951 to 1953 and at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

from 1961 to 1989, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

record of 132–173–10. His tenure of 28 years as head coach San Francisco State spanned over half of the length of time college football was played at the school. Rowen was also the head basketball coach at Defiance from 1951 to 1954 at and San Francisco State for a season in 1957–58, tallying a career college basketball mark of 54–34.

Early years

Born Brooklyn, New York, Rowen played college football at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

, and later went on to earn a doctorate in physical education from Columbia University. Rowen got his start as a college coach at Ohio's

in 1951. He joined San Francisco State as an assistant coach in 1954 under Joe Verducci, until becoming head coach in 1961.

San Francisco State

In Rowen's first years with the program, San Francisco State was a west-coast small college football powerhouse, winning eight Far Western Conference titles before 1967. This early success lead his team to attract a great deal of football talent to the university and San Francisco State was well known for its football during this time. All of that changed during the student strike of 1968, which crippled football at SFSU. San Francisco State did not have a winning season between 1973 and when the program was cancelled in 1995. While noted for producing outstanding players and coaches who would go on to win with other programs, San Francisco State football under Rowen's later years was not as successful as other Division II college football teams. Rowen was also the president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1986.

Family

Rowen's son,

Keith Rowen Keith Rowen (born September 2, 1952) is an American football coach. He served as the offensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals in 2005 until he was fired in October 2006 the day after the Cardinals lost to the Bears after leading by 20 po ...

, coached in the National Football League (NFL) with various teams for over 25 years.

Death

Rowen died January 14, 2013, aged 93.

Head coaching record

College football

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowen, Vic 1919 births 2013 deaths Defiance Yellow Jackets baseball coaches Defiance Yellow Jackets football coaches Defiance Yellow Jackets men's basketball coaches San Francisco State Gators football coaches San Francisco State Gators men's basketball coaches High school football coaches in New York (state) Columbia University alumni Long Island Blackbirds football players United States Army personnel of World War II Basketball coaches from New York (state) United States Army soldiers Sportspeople from Brooklyn Players of American football from New York City