John Bridgers

College coach infobox
Name = John D. Bridgers

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DateOfBirth =
Birthplace =
DateOfDeath =
Sport = Football
College = Johns Hopkins, Baylor
Title = Head coach
CurrentRecord =
OverallRecord = 59-74-2
Awards =
Championships =
CFbDWID = 240
Player =
Years =
Team =
Position =
Coach = Y
CoachYears = 1953-1956
1959-1968
CoachTeams = Johns Hopkins
Baylor
FootballHOF =
CollegeHOFID =

John D. Bridgers (died November 24, 2006) was the head football coach at Baylor from 1959 to 1968.

Bridgers began his career as an assistant coach at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., (1947-51), was head coach for the First Cavalry Division Artillery Team in Hokkaido, Japan (1952) and was head football and track coach at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore from 1953-56.

In 1957 and 1958 he served as a coach/coordinator for the Baltimore Colts, where he developed their pro-style offense attack. He carried that style with him 1n 1959, coming to Baylor to replace the fired Sam Boyd.

During his Baylor tenure, he compiled a 49-53-1(.481) record. In his first five seasons, he led the Bears to three bowl games, winning 2 of them. He installed the Colts' wide-open passing game at Baylor, helping make All-Americans of quarterback Don Trull and receiver Lawrence Elkins after a record-breaking 1963 season. In the Bears' 1966 season opener against Syracuse at Baylor Stadium, Bridgers sent in John Hill Westbrook, making the sophomore running back the first black athlete to play for a Southwest Conference school.

Bridgers spent a year on Chuck Noll's first Pittsburgh Steelers staff, where he urged the coach to consider drafting a player he tried to recruit for Baylor, a quarterback named Terry Bradshaw. After the Steelers took Bradshaw with the first overall pick in the 1970 draft they won four Super Bowls in the next decade.

After Bridgers left Pittsburgh for an assistant's job at South Carolina, he became athletic director at Florida State in the early 1970s. Despite inheriting a $1 million athletic deficit, he turned the program around with the single most important hire in school history, convincing another talented coach from Alabama, Hall of Famer Bobby Bowden to leave West Virginia for the Seminoles.

Turning around another struggling athletic program, Coach Bridgers left Florida State for New Mexico in 1979, where his win brother Frank was a principal of a major engineering firm. He encountered a program where major NCAA infractions had surfaced in the basketball program under Norm Ellenberger, prompting an FBI investigation into transcript-rigging. Coach Bridgers turned the scandal ridden program around by hiring Gary Colson, and headed the athletic department as the football Lobos (under Joe Morrison) enjoyed a magical 10-1 1982 season.

Coach Bridgers died in Albuquerque of congestive heart failure at the age of 84.

Head Coaching Record

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1953
name = Johns Hopkins
overall = 2-6-0

conference =
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CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1954
name = Johns Hopkins
overall = 2-6-0

conference =
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CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1955
name = Johns Hopkins
overall = 2-6-0

conference =
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bowlname =
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ranking =
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CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1956
name = Johns Hopkins
overall = 4-3-1

conference =
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bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship = conference

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1959
name = Baylor
overall = 4-6-0

conference = 2-4
confstanding = 5th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1960
name = Baylor
overall = 8-3-0

conference = 5-2
confstanding = T-2nd
bowlname = Gator
bowloutcome = L 12-13
bcsbowl =
ranking = 11
ranking2 = 12

championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1961
name = Baylor
overall = 6-5-0

conference = 2-5
confstanding = T-6th
bowlname = Gotham
bowloutcome = W 24-9
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1962
name = Baylor
overall = 4-6-0

conference = 3-4
confstanding = T-4th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1963
name = Baylor
overall = 8-3-0

conference = 6-1
confstanding = 2nd
bowlname = Bluebonnet
bowloutcome = W
bcsbowl =
ranking = 20
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1964
name = Baylor
overall = 5-5-0

conference = 4-3
confstanding = 3rd
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1965
name = Baylor
overall = 5-5-0

conference = 3-4
confstanding = T-4th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1966
name = Baylor
overall = 5-5-0

conference = 3-4
confstanding = 5th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1967
name = Baylor
overall = 1-8-1

conference = 0-6-1
confstanding = 8th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

CFB Yearly Record Entry
year = 1968
name = Baylor
overall = 3-7-0

conference = 3-4
confstanding = 5th
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 =
championship =

References

reflist

External links

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* [http://baylorbears.cstv.com/genrel/112706aac.html Baylor Bears notice regarding death]