John Gagliardi, Winningest College Football Coach, Retires
John Gagliardi, the winningest coach in college football history, is retiring.
The 86-year-old coach announced his retirement from Division III St. John’s University in Minnesota on Monday morning.
Gagliardi said:
”Seventy years is a long time to be doing the same job … ‘Luckily, I’ve always been blessed with great players, friends, family and support to make it this far. Nobody ever said that getting older was easy. I just can’t do the job at the level I used to anymore.”
Yahoo Sports reports that Gagliardi started coaching college football in 1949. He will retire with a 489-138-11 record. Most of those wins came at St. John’s where he started coaching in 1953. He won 27 conference titles at St. John’s and four National Championships. Gagliardi was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and became the namesake for the Division III player of the year trophy (The Gagliardi Trophy) in 1993.
School President Michael Hemesath said:
”Arguably, John Gagliardi has impacted the lives of as many young men as any individual in the history of Saint John’s University … His legacy of educating young men at Saint John’s is one that any coach or professor would envy.”
According to the school, Gagliardi also holds the record for years spent as a college football coach. Gagliardi spent 64 years of his life coaching college football.
