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List of Northwestern Wildcats head football coaches

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Pat Fitzgerald in a black shirt.
Pat Fitzgerald served as head coach at Northwestern from 2006 to 2022.

The Northwestern Wildcats college football team represents the Northwestern University in the Big Ten Conference. The Wildcats compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 29 head coaches since it began play during the 1876 season. Since July 2006, Pat Fitzgerald has served as head coach at Northwestern.[1]

Four coaches have led Northwestern in postseason bowl games: Bob Voigts, Gary Barnett, Randy Walker, and Fitzgerald. Six of those coaches also won conference championships: Walter McCornack captured one as a member of the Western Conference; and Dick Hanley and Barnett each captured two and Pappy Waldorf, Glenn Thistlethwaite, and Walker each captured one as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

Fitzgerald is the leader in overall wins and seasons coached with 110 wins during his 17 years as head coach. Walter McCornack has the highest winning percentage at 0.800. Rick Venturi has the lowest winning percentage at 0.045. Of the 29 different head coaches who have led the Orange, Charlie Bachman, Waldorf, Alex Agase, and Ara Parseghian have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key

[edit]
Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

[edit]
List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name[A 6] Season(s)[A 7] GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT CC NC Awards
1 Knowlton Ames 1891–1892 17 7 5 5 0.559 1 3 0 0.250 — — — 0 — —
2 Paul Noyes 1893 10 2 5 3 0.350 0 2 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
3 A. A. Ewing 1894 9 4 5 0 0.444 — — — — — — — — — —
4 Alvin H. Culver 1895–1896 20 12 6 2 0.650 2 1 1 0.625 — — — 0 — —
5 Jesse Van Doozer 1897 8 5 3 0 0.625 0 2 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
6 W. H. Bannard 1898 14 9 4 1 0.679 0 4 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
7 Charles M. Hollister 1899–1902 47 27 16 4 0.617 7 9 2 0.444 — — — 0 — —
8 Walter McCornack 1903–1905 35 26 5 4 0.800 2 4 2 0.375 — — — 1 — —
9 Alton Johnson 1908 4 2 2 0 0.500 0 2 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
10 Bill Horr 1909 5 1 3 1 0.300 1 3 0 0.250 — — — 0 — —
11 Charles Hammett 1910–1912 18 6 10 2 0.389 0 6 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
12 Dennis Grady 1913 7 1 6 0 0.143 0 6 0 .000 — — — 0 — —
13 Fred J. Murphy 1914–1918 33 16 16 1 0.500 8 15 0 0.348 — — — 0 — —
14 Charlie Bachman† 1919 7 2 5 0 0.286 1 4 0 0.200 — — — 0 — —
15 Elmer McDevitt 1920–1921 14 4 10 0 0.286 2 8 0 0.200 — — — 0 — —
16 Glenn Thistlethwaite 1922–1926 39 21 17 1 0.551 10 13 1 0.438 — — — 1 — —
17 Dick Hanley 1927–1934 66 36 26 4 0.576 22 19 2 0.535 — — — 2 — —
18 Pappy Waldorf† 1935–1946 101 49 45 7 0.520 34 31 7 0.521 — — — 1 — —
19 Bob Voigts 1947–1954 73 33 39 1 0.459 18 32 0 0.360 1 0 0 0 — —
20 Lou Saban 1955 9 0 8 1 0.056 0 6 1 0.071 0 0 0 0 — —
21 Ara Parseghian† 1956–1963 72 36 35 1 0.507 22 31 1 0.417 0 0 0 0 — —
22 Alex Agase† 1964–1972 91 32 58 1 0.357 26 40 1 0.396 0 0 0 0 — —
23 John Pont 1973–1977 55 12 43 0 0.218 10 31 0 0.244 0 0 0 0 — —
24 Rick Venturi 1978–1980 33 1 31 1 0.045 0 26 1 0.019 0 0 0 0 — —
25 Dennis Green 1981–1985 55 10 45 0 0.182 7 37 0 0.159 0 0 0 0 — —
26 Francis Peay 1986–1991 66 13 51 2 0.212 9 38 1 0.198 0 0 0 0 — —
27 Gary Barnett 1992–1998 81 35 45 1 0.438 23 33 0 0.411 0 2 0 2 — —
28 Randy Walker 1999–2005 83 37 46 — 0.446 24 32 — 0.429 0 3 — 1 — —
29 Pat Fitzgerald 2006–2022 211 110 101 — 0.521 65 76 — 0.461 5 5 — 0 — Bobby Dodd COY (2020)
30 David Braun 2023–present 13 8 5 — 0.615 5 4 — 0.556 1 0 — 0 — —

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[2]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[3]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[4]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  6. ^ Northwestern did not have a head coach for the 1876, 1882, 1886, 1882, and 1888–1890.
  7. ^ Northwestern did not field a team for the 1877–1881, 1883–1885, 1887, and 1906–1907 seasons.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Fitzgerald becomes youngest coach in Division I-A". ESPN.com. July 7, 2006. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  2. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  3. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  4. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
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