Robert Goin (October 3, 1936 – October 12, 2019) 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 ...

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 and college athletic administrator. He served as the head football coach at Bethany College in

Bethany, West Virginia Bethany is a town in southern Brooke County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 756 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville metropolitan area. It is best known as the home of Bethany College, a private liberal ...

from 1963 to 1972, compiling a record of 45–32–2. He was also the school's head baseball coach and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

. Goin served as the athletic director at

California University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Western University, California (commonly known as PennWest California) is a public university campus in California, Pennsylvania and one of three campuses of Pennsylvania Western University, part of the Pennsylvania State System o ...

from 1979 to 1981,

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

from 1990 to 1994, and the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

from 1997 to 2005

Early life and playing career

Goin was a 1959 graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia, where he was a member of

Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Tau (), commonly known as Phi Tau (), is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of November 2022, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 79 active chapters, 6 Associate chapte ...

fraternity. Goin married his high-school sweetheart Nancy in 1957.

Coaching career

Goin returned to Bethany in 1960 as an assistant football coach.

Administrative career

Goin servined as athletic director and chair of the physical education department at Bethany from 1970 to 1976, and as a tenured professor. From 1976 to 1979, Goin served as assistant athletics director at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

, and spent two years, from 1979 to 1981, as athletic director at

. Goin served five years, from 1990 to 1994, as the athletic director at Florida State, guiding the Seminoles into membership in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC). During his tenure, Goin also oversaw an $80 Million expansion of all FSU athletic facilities. Within this project, Goin helped start the Doak Campbell Stadium expansion that boosted seating by nearly 20,000 and added classrooms to the buildings wrapped around the stadium. Goin later resigned his position at Florida State after being accused by a weekly newspaper in Tallahassee of using a contractor involved in the school's stadium expansion to install a new roof over his home. But an investigation by the Florida Times-Union newspaper revealed that Goin paid more than market price for the roof, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Florida Ethics Commission. During his tenure at Cincinnati, which began in 1995, the school joined the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

and developed the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village, a comprehensive $80.3 million athletic facilities enhancement. Cincinnati's sports teams posted a combined winning percentage of nearly .600 in the past eight years, claiming 29 conference titles, making 49 postseason appearances and producing 39 All-Americans under his leadership. Also, Cincinnati's football team made their first postseason bowl appearance in 47 years. Goin placed a strong focus on developing UC student-athletes' academic abilities during his tenure. He improved the academic support services they received and started programs that allowed student-athletes who exhausted their athletic eligibility to return to school in order to earn their degree. Nationally, the most notable event during his Cincinnati tenure was the dismissal of basketball coach

Bob Huggins Robert Edward Huggins (born September 21, 1953) is an American college basketball coach. Nicknamed “Huggy Bear,” he is currently the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team. Huggins previously held the head coach ...

. Goin retired from the AD role at UC in 2005 to move closer to his four children and six grandchildren that resided in the Florida. To this day the Football Team Meeting Room in the Lindner Center is named after Goin. Goin served on the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

Championships/Competition Cabinet and the NCAA Football Bowl Certification Subcommittee.

Honors and death

Goin was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and the University of Cincinnati athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He was also a member of the Penn Hills High School and Bethany College Halls of Fame and was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the Phi Kappa Tau Hall of Fame in 2006. Goin died after a heart attack on October 12, 2019, in

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida Ponte Vedra Beach is a wealthy unincorporated seaside community and suburb of Jacksonville, Florida in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located southeast of downtown Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jackso ...

Head coaching record

Football

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goin, Bob 1936 births 2019 deaths Bethany Bison athletic directors Bethany Bison baseball players Bethany Bison football coaches Bethany Bison football players Bethany Bison men's basketball players California Vulcans athletic directors Cincinnati Bearcats athletic directors Florida State Seminoles athletic directors Bethany College (West Virginia) faculty West Virginia University people Sportspeople from Gary, Indiana People from Penn Hills Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania People from Verona, Pennsylvania Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania Baseball coaches from Pennsylvania Basketball players from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Gary, Indiana Basketball players from Gary, Indiana