Jerry Berndt (May 11, 1938 – December 3, 2022) 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 wi ...

player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...

, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

, and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

. In two years at DePauw (1979–1980), Berndt guided the Tigers to a 9–9–1 mark, including a 7–2–1 mark in his second season. From 1981 to 1985, he coached at Penn and compiled a 29–18–2 record. In 1984, he won

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

Coach of the Year honors. From 1986 to 1988, he coached at Rice, and compiled a 6–27 record. This included an 0–11 season in 1988. From 1989 to 1992, he coached at Temple, where he compiled an 11–33 record. He also served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

from 1994 to 1999. He played college football at

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

. Berndt died on December 3, 2022, aged 84.

Coaching career

Berndt began his coaching career in the

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

ranks in 1962. He was an assistant at

Libbey High School Edward Drummond Libbey High School was a public high school building located on the south side of Toledo, Ohio which held classes from 1923 until 2010. It is part of Toledo Public Schools and contained the Smart Academy and Humanities Academy. L ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

and at Bedford High School in

Temperance, Michigan Temperance is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,188 at the 2020 census. The CDP is located within Bedford Township. The community was established a ...

. In 1969, he worked a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respo ...

at the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of ...

under head coach

Frank Lauterbur Francis Xavier Lauterbur (August 8, 1925 – November 20, 2013) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Toledo from 1963 to 1970 and at the University of Iowa from 1971 to 1973, compiling a car ...

. The next year Berndt served as the head football coach at Streetsboro High School in Streetsboro, Ohio. From 1971 to 1978 he was an assistant football coach at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berndt, Jerry 1938 births 2022 deaths American men's basketball players Bowling Green Falcons football players Dartmouth Big Green football coaches DePauw Tigers football coaches Missouri Tigers football coaches Penn Quakers football coaches Rice Owls athletic directors Rice Owls football coaches Temple Owls football coaches Toledo Rockets football coaches Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets baseball players Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets football players Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets men's basketball players Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets wrestlers College men's tennis players in the United States High school football coaches in Ohio