Bob Voigts

{{short description|American football, basketball player and coach}}

{{Infobox college coach

| name = Bob Voigts

| image = Bob Voigts and Alex Sarkisian kiss a football, 1949.jpg

| alt = A picture of Bob Voigts and Alex Sarkisian kissing the game ball after the Rose Bowl in 1949

| caption = Voigts and Northwestern center Alex Sarkisian kiss the game ball after winning the Rose Bowl in 1949.

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|3|29}}

| birth_place = Evanston, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|12|7|1916|3|29}}

| death_place = Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.

| alma_mater =

| player_sport1 = Football

| player_years2 = 1936–1938

| player_team2 = Northwestern

| player_sport3 = Basketball

| player_years4 = 1936–1939

| player_team4 = Northwestern

| player_positions = Tackle (football)

| coach_sport1 = Football

| coach_years2 = 1939–1940

| coach_team2 = Illinois Wesleyan (assistant)

| coach_years3 = 1941

| coach_team3 = Yale (line)

| coach_years4 = 1942–1943

| coach_team4 = Great Lakes (assistant)

| coach_years5 = 1946

| coach_team5 = Cleveland Browns (assistant)

| coach_years6 = 1947–1954

| coach_team6 = Northwestern

| coach_sport7 = Basketball

| coach_years8 = 1939–1941

| coach_team8 = Illinois Wesleyan

| coach_sport9 = Baseball

| coach_years10 = 1940

| coach_team10 = Illinois Wesleyan

| overall_record = 33–39–1 (football)
25–16 (basketball)

| bowl_record = 1–0

| tournament_record =

| championships =

| awards =

First-team All-American (1938)
First-team All-Big Ten (1938)

| coaching_records =

}}

Werner Robert Voigts (March 29, 1916 – December 7, 2000) was an American football and basketball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Northwestern University from 1947 to 1954, compiling a record of 33–39–1. Voigts led the 1948 Northwestern Wildcats team to the Rose Bowl, the first in school history, where they defeated California, 20–14.

Voigts was a native of Evanston, Illinois, where Northwestern's main campus is located. He attended Northwestern and played on the school's football team between 1936 and 1938. In his sophomore year, the Wildcats won the Big Ten Conference, and Voigts was named an All-American tackle. After college, Voigts served as an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Illinois Wesleyan University before moving briefly to Yale University, where he was a football line coach. He entered the U.S. Navy during World War II in 1942 and was stationed outside of Chicago where he met Paul Brown, the head coach of the base's football team. When Brown became head coach of the Cleveland Browns after the war, he hired Voigts as a tackle coach. After a year with the Browns, Voigts became head coach at Northwestern.

Voigts resigned as Northwestern's head coach in 1955, citing growing criticism of his coaching after a string of losing seasons. He left football but stayed in Evanston, where he ran a real estate business for 30 years. He died in 2000.

Early life and college

Voigts grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and attended Northwestern University, based in his hometown.{{cite news |last=Jauss |first=Bill |title=Bob Voigts |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/12/10/bob-voigts-coached-only-nu-bowl-win/ |access-date=September 5, 2012 |newspaper=The Chicago Tribune |date=December 10, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022164112/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-12-10/sports/0012100518_1_bob-voigts-dyche-stadium-alex-sarkisian |archive-date=October 22, 2016 |url-status=live }} He played tackle on the school's football team starting as a sophomore in 1936.{{cite news|last=Kirksey|first=George |title=Fumble, Penalty Give Northwestern Victory|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fUYbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2868,202778&dq=bob+voigts&hl=en|access-date=September 5, 2012|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=November 1, 1936 |agency=United Press International|location=Evanston, Ill.|page=1}} That year, the Northwestern Wildcats posted a 7–1 win–loss record under coach Pappy Waldorf and were champions of the Big Ten Conference, a grouping of large schools from the Midwestern United States.{{cite web |title=Northwestern Yearly Results |url=http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/bigten/northwestern/yearly_results.php?year=1935 |publisher=College Football Data Warehouse |access-date=September 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025113549/http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/bigten/northwestern/yearly_results.php?year=1935 |archive-date=October 25, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Voigts was selected by news outlets as an All-American. He was named to an all-Big Ten squad after his senior year in 1938 and played in the College All-Star Game, a now-defunct matchup between the National Football League champions and a selection of the country's best college players.{{cite news|title=Six Teams Put Men on Big 10 Squad of Honor|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=L8kzAAAAIBAJ&pg=3157,5731716&dq=bob+voigts&hl=en |access-date=September 5, 2012|newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel|date=November 23, 1938|agency=United Press International|location=Chicago|page=7}}{{cite news |last=Daley |first=Arthur J. |title=All-Star Eleven Favored Over Giants in Meeting Tonight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/08/30/archives/allstar-eleven-favored-over-giants-in-meeting-tonight-four-of-the.html |access-date=September 5, 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 30, 1939 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130115224/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40616FC3854107A93C2AA1783D85F4D8385F9 |archive-date=January 30, 2013 |url-status=dead }} Voigts also played on Northwestern's basketball team.{{cite news|last=Walfoort|first=Cleon |title=Hilltops Seek Dual Revenge |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RqpQAAAAIBAJ&pg=5407,672763&dq=bob+voigts&hl=en|access-date=September 5, 2012|newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal|date=February 2, 1939|page=6}}

Coaching career

Voigts became head coach of the basketball team at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1939 and was co-coach of the football team alongside Don Heap.{{cite web |title=Illinois Wesleyan Men's Basketball Year-by-Year Records, Honors |url=http://www.iwusports.com/sports/2010/9/16/MBB_0916102851.aspx?id=158 |publisher=Illinois Wesleyan University |access-date=September 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626183712/http://iwusports.com/sports/2010/9/16/MBB_0916102851.aspx?id=158 |archive-date=June 26, 2015 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |title=Northwestern Due To Sign Bob Voigts|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19470225&id=Avo-AAAAIBAJ&pg=5409,2402456|access-date=September 5, 2012|newspaper=The Tuscaloosa News|date=February 25, 1947 |agency=United Press International|location=Chicago|page=7}} In two years at the school, Voigts's basketball teams posted a 25–16 win–loss record. Voigts in 1941 became a line coach for the Yale Bulldogs football team at Yale University.{{cite news|title=Lt. Bob Voigts to Aid Brown at Cleveland|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/477844232.html?dids=477844232:477844232&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+20%2C+1945&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Lt.+Bob+Voigts+to+Aid+Brown+at+Cleveland&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131161702/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/477844232.html?dids=477844232:477844232&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+20,+1945&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Lt.+Bob+Voigts+to+Aid+Brown+at+Cleveland&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2013|access-date=September 6, 2012|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune |date=March 20, 1945}}

After one season at Yale, Voigts entered the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Station outside of Chicago and served as a line coach on the base's Bluejackets football team from 1942 to 1943.{{cite book|title=Official Souvenir Program, All-America Championship, Cleveland Browns vs. New York Yankees|date=December 22, 1946|page=14|quote=Bob Voigts, Tackle Coach. A graduate of Northwestern University ... Co-football coach at Illinois Wesleyan in 1939 and 1940 ... Line coach at Yale University in 1941 ... Line coach at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in 1942 and 1943.}} When the war ended, Paul Brown, who had been head football coach at Great Lakes, hired Voigts as a tackle coach for the Cleveland Browns, a new team in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) that was to start play in 1946. He joined the Browns in March 1945, making him the first assistant signed by the team.

Voigts coached tackles Lou Rymkus and Lou Groza as the Browns won the first AAFC championship in 1946.{{sfn|Piascik|2007|p=64}} He stayed in Cleveland for only one season, however, accepting the head coaching job at Northwestern in February 1947.{{cite news|title=Voigts Receives 3-Year Contract as Northwestern Head Coach|newspaper=Cleveland Plain Dealer|date=February 26, 1947|page=14}} He signed a three-year contract, succeeding his old coach Waldorf. At 31 years old, he was one of the youngest men ever hired to coach a Big Ten football team.

Voigts spent eight seasons at Northwestern, during which his teams compiled a 33–39–1 record.{{cite web |title=Robert W. "Bob" Voigts Records by Year |url=http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2398 |publisher=College Football Data Warehouse |access-date=September 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002230741/http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2398 |archive-date=October 2, 2012 |url-status=dead }} This ranks him sixth all-time among Northwestern football coaches in total wins and 12th in winning percentage. His most successful year was his second season, when the Wildcats finished with an 8–2 record and won the Rose Bowl 20–14 over a University of California, Berkeley team coached by Waldorf.{{cite news|title=Bob Voigts Resigns At Northwestern|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LPQZAAAAIBAJ&pg=6768,1475700&dq=bob+voigts+browns&hl=en|access-date=September 7, 2012|newspaper=The Times-News|date=February 4, 1955|agency=United Press International|location=Evanston, Ill.|page=8}}{{sfn|LaTourette|2005|p=57}} It was Northwestern's first-ever bowl victory and remained the only one in the school's history until the Wildcats won the 2013 Gator Bowl game in Jacksonville, Florida. Northwestern ended the season ranked seventh in the AP Poll of the best college teams in the country.{{cite web|title=Northwestern 1948 AP Football Rankings |url=http://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/teams/by_season.cfm?seasonid=1948&teamid=4|publisher=College Poll Archive|access-date=September 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531115338/http://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/teams/by_season.cfm?seasonid=1948&teamid=4|archive-date=May 31, 2013|url-status=dead}} Throughout his entire career at Northwestern, Voigts was an assistant coach in the College All-Star Game, a now-defunct annual matchup between the champion of the National Football League and a selection of the best college players from around the country.{{cite news |last=Ward|first=Arch|title=Voigts Gets 5th All-Star Coaching Job|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/500595102.html?dids=500595102:500595102&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jun+13%2C+1952&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=VOIGTS+GETS+5TH+ALL-STAR+COACHING+JOB&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131223028/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/500595102.html?dids=500595102:500595102&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jun+13,+1952&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=VOIGTS+GETS+5TH+ALL-STAR+COACHING+JOB&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2013|access-date=September 7, 2012|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=June 13, 1952}}{{cite news|last=Liska|first=Jerry|title=Detroit Pros Are Favored In All-Star Grid Classic|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FBRZAAAAIBAJ&pg=2712,1793533&dq=bob+voigts+all-star&hl=en|access-date=September 7, 2012|newspaper=The News and Courier|date=August 13, 1953|agency=Associated Press|location=Chicago|page=10A}}{{cite news|title=College Stars Get Ready to Plot Trouble for Pros|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KRpUAAAAIBAJ&pg=3430,5237639&dq=bob+voigts+all-star&hl=en|access-date=September 7, 2012|newspaper=St. Joseph News-Press|date=July 23, 1954|agency=Associated Press|location=Lafayette, Ind.|page=12}}

While Voigts's tenure at Northwestern started successfully, he came under increasing pressure in the early 1950s after posting a string of losing records.{{sfn|LaTourette|2005|p=68}} He resigned in February 1955, citing his failure to put together winning teams. "It was just an increasing amount of criticism over my coaching, and it was probably hurting the school so I just quit", he said at the time. He said he had "no future plans" and had not considered whether he would return to pro football. He is sixth among Northwestern coaches in total wins and 12th in winning percentage.{{cite web |title=Northwestern Coaching Records |url=http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/bigten/northwestern/coaching_records.php |publisher=College Football Data Warehouse |access-date=September 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002230209/http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/bigten/northwestern/coaching_records.php |archive-date=October 2, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Lou Saban, a former Browns lineman who had served as assistant to Voigts, replaced him as head coach.{{cite news|title=Lou Saban Named Wildcats Coach|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19550209&id=NvlVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6792,1182174|access-date=September 7, 2012|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=February 9, 1955|agency=Associated Press|location=Evanston, Ill.|page=5B}}

Later life and death

Voigts stayed in Evanston after resigning and operated a real estate business out of an office across the street from Northwestern's Dyche Stadium for 30 years. He died in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois in 2000 following a long illness. Northwestern in 2004 started the Bob Voigts Coach of the Year award, given to the best head coach at the school as selected by other coaches.{{cite web |title=Kelly Amonte Hiller Named 2009 Bob Voigts Coach of the Year |url=http://www.nusports.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/082809aaa.html |publisher=Northwestern University |access-date=September 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130061116/http://www.nusports.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/082809aaa.html |archive-date=January 30, 2013 |url-status=dead }}

Head coaching record

=Football=

{{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = AP }}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead

| name = Northwestern Wildcats

| conf = Big Ten Conference

| startyear = 1947

| endyear = 1954

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1947

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 3–6

| conference = 2–4

| confstanding = 8th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1948

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 8–2

| conference = 5–1

| confstanding = 2nd

| bowlname = Rose

| bowloutcome = W

| bcsbowl =

| ranking = 7

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1949

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 4–5

| conference = 3–4

| confstanding = 7th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1950

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 6–3

| conference = 3–3

| confstanding = 5th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1951

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 5–4

| conference = 2–4

| confstanding = 6th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1952

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 2–6–1

| conference = 2–5

| confstanding = T–6th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1953

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 3–6

| conference = 0–6

| confstanding = 10th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1954

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 2–7

| conference = 1–5

| confstanding = T–8th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking =

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal

| name = Northwestern

| overall = 33–39–1

| confrecord = 18–32

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record End

| overall = 33–39–1

| bowls = no

| poll =

| polltype = Rankings from final AP Poll

| legend = no

}}

References

=Bibliography=

{{cite book|last=LaTourette|first=Larry|year=2005|title=Northwestern Wildcat Football|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Mount Pleasant, South Carolina|isbn=978-0-7385-3433-6}}
{{cite book|last=Piascik|first=Andy|year=2007|title=The Best Show in Football: The 1946–1955 Cleveland Browns|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=978-1-58979-571-6}}

Category:1916 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:American football tackles

Category:Basketball coaches from Illinois

Category:Basketball players from Illinois

Category:Cleveland Browns coaches

Category:Coaches of American football from Illinois

Category:Illinois Wesleyan Titans baseball coaches

Category:Illinois Wesleyan Titans football coaches

Category:Illinois Wesleyan Titans men's basketball coaches

Category:Northwestern Wildcats football coaches

Category:Northwestern Wildcats football players