John Gagliardi

College coach infobox


| Coach = Yes
DateOfBirth = birth date and age|1926|11|1
Birthplace = flagicon|Colorado Trinidad, Colorado
Sport = Football
College = St. John's
Title = Head Coach
CoachYears = 1949-1952
1953-"present"
CoachTeams = Carroll College
St. John's University
CFbDWID = 2701
FootballHOF = 2006
CollegeHOFID = 90106
BBallHOF =

:"For other persons of the same name see John Gagliardi (disambiguation)"

John Gagliardi (born November 1, 1926, in Trinidad, Colorado) is a head collegiate football coach. He is college football's career coaching victories leader with 453 wins.

Born to Ventura and Antoinetta Gagliardi, John Gagliardi (pronounced Guh-LAHR-dee) began coaching football in 1943 at the age of 16 when his high school coach was called into service during World War II. He was a player-coach that senior year of high school and continued to coach high schools while obtaining his college degree at Colorado College. At the age of 22, with six years of high school coaching Gagliardi was hired at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. In four seasons as head coach at Carroll, Gagliardi compiled a 24-6-1 record, winning three conference championships.

Gagliardi left Carroll for the Catholic Benedictine school St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

In 54 seasons at St. John's, Gagliardi has won a school- and conference-record 25 MIAC titles and four national championships.

Gagliardi has a 453-122-11 (.782) career record and a 429-116-10 (.782) record at St. John's.

He broke the record for NCAA career coaching wins on November 8, 2003, passing Eddie Robinson with his 409th win. The win also gave St. John's its 23rd MIAC championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA playoff. Gagliardi and St. John's went on to win the national championship with a 24-6 win over Mount Union. The 13,107 fans who witnessed the victory at St. John's Clemens Stadium were the largest crowd in NCAA Division III history.

In 1993, Jostens and the J Club of St. John's University began awarding the Gagliardi Trophy to the most outstanding player in NCAA Division III.

On August 11, 2006, Gagliardi became the first active head coach to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Gagliardi is known for his unique coaching approach, which he calls “Winning with No's”: no calling him coach--simply call him John; no calisthenics; no tackling during practice; and no whistles.

More information on Gagliardi, his program, and his unique coaching style can be found in Austin Murphy's book "The Sweet Season" and Jim Collison's book "No-How Coaching".