Jerry Pettibone

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Jerry Pettibone (born July 11, 1939) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Northern Illinois University from 1985 to 1990 and Oregon State University from 1991 to 1996. compiling a career college football record of 46–84–2 (.356).^[1]

Early life

Pettibone's football career started at Jesuit High School in Dallas, Texas. He earned All-State honors as a running back on the state championship football team in 1956 and 1957. He received the honor to be in the first class inducted into the Jesuit Sports Hall of Fame. After graduating from Jesuit High School, Pettibone received a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, where he played halfback for the Sooners under head coach Bud Wilkinson.

Coaching career

Assistant coach

Pettibone spent time as an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Texas A&M University. In his career as an assistant coach, he coached in 11 major bowl games and won eight Big Eight Conference championships. Teams he was with collectively produced a record of 168–64–3 (.721). He was with two national championship teams and helped to recruit 20 consensus All-Americans, two Heisman Trophy winners, two Outland Trophy winners and a Lombardi Award winner.

At Oklahoma, Pettibone was part of eight bowl games and was with two national championship teams. He was part of seven Big Eight championship teams at Oklahoma. Pettibone recruited running back

After the 1990 season, Pettibone left NIU in early December for the Pacific-10 Conference at Oregon State University in Corvallis, replacing Dave Kragthorpe.^[3][4] The contrasting styles of offenses made the transition very difficult; Kragthorpe ran an extremely pass oriented offense, while Pettibone preferred the running game and specifically the wishbone formation and the triple option. In his first two seasons at Oregon State, the team struggled, winning only one game in both 1991 and 1992. However, in 1993 and 1994, things started to click and the Beavers posted four wins each year. Oregon State finished second in the nation in rushing in 1993, and Pettibone was named co-runner-up for the Division I-A Coach of the Year honors by Sports Illustrated. In his fifth season in 1995, they fell to 1–10; after a 2–9 season in 1996, Pettibone resigned in late November,^[5][6] and was succeeded by Mike Riley in 1997.

Later life and family

Pettibone left Corvallis to become the assistant athletic director at his alma mater Oklahoma in 1996. After one year, his position was terminated in the wake of budget cuts in the department.^[7]

Pettibone lives in Norman with his wife Susy and currently works for Sooners Helping Sooners, a non-profit that helps former OU student athletes find employment.^[8] In addition to his responsibilities with Sooners Helping Sooners he also has maintains a personal football evaluation service for high school and junior college athletes to help them determine what level their playing ability falls under, and how to navigate the college recruiting process.

Head coaching record

References