Warren Harper ( 1932 – July 24, 1997) 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. He served as the head football coach at Texas Western College—now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)—from 1963 to 1964, compiling a record of 3–15–2. Harper graduated from O'Keefe High School in Atlanta, Georgia before moving on to play at Copiah Lincoln Community College. From there, Harper transferred to Austin College where he was chosen to the All-

Texas Conference The Texas Conference was a college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1926 to 1956. During its existence, a total of 11 different colleges in Texas, and one from New Mexico, were members. History The conference was created ...

team in 1953 as a quarterback. Upon graduation, Harper served as an assistant coach for several Texas high schools. He started at Victoria High School, moved to Orange High School, then to Sherman High School, and finally

Amarillo High School Amarillo High School is a school located in the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States and is one of four high schools in the Amarillo Independent School District and classified as a 5A school by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). In 2015 ...

. In 1961, he was hired back at Sherman as the head coach at a yearly salary of $7,038. The team posted a 7–2–1 record despite being picked to finish dead last in the district. Shortly after the season, Sherman quit to become an assistant at Texas Western. After one season as the top assistant, Harper was named head coach after

Bum Phillips Oail Andrew "Bum" Phillips Jr. (September 29, 1923 – October 18, 2013) was an American football coach at the high school, college and professional levels. He served as head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for the Houston Oilers fro ...

resigned. Harper was never able to achieve much success and after a winless 2nd second season, announced his resignation shortly before the team's final game. He had wanted to announce it after the season, but the information leaked to the press so he informed his team during the pre-game meeting. Harper was then hired back at Amarillo High School, this time as the head coach with a salary of $9,200. In 1967, Harper was named Coach of the Year after his team posted a 10–0 regular season record before losing in the playoffs. In three seasons at Amarillo, he posted a record of 24–6–1. He was an assistant at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

from 1968 to 1982, where he coached

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

s such as

Rod Shoate Roderick Shoate (April 26, 1953 – October 4, 1999) was an American football linebacker in the National Football League. He was a four-time All-Big 8 Conference Player and a three-time All-American at the University of Oklahoma. He played seven ...

George Cumby George Edward Cumby (born July 5, 1956) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1980s. He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, thri ...

, and

Daryl Hunt Daryl Lynn Hunt (November 3, 1956 – July 9, 2010) was a professional American football player, a linebacker for six seasons for the Houston Oilers appearing in 78 career regular season games after being selected by Houston during the 6th roun ...

Head coaching record

College

References

1932 births 1997 deaths Oklahoma Sooners football coaches Seattle Seahawks scouts UTEP Miners football coaches High school football coaches in Texas {{1960s-collegefootball-coach-stub