Bill Blankenship
| Sport(s) | Football |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
December 12, 1956 Spiro, Oklahoma |
| Alma mater | University of Tulsa |
| Playing career | |
| 1975–1979 | Tulsa |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1986–1989 | Spiro HS |
| 1990–1991 | Edmond Memorial HS |
| 1992–2005 | Union HS |
| 2007–2010 | Tulsa (WR, RB, ST) |
| 2011–2014 | Tulsa |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 24–27 |
| Bowls | 1–1 |
|
Statistics | |
Bill Blankenship (born December 12, 1956) is an American football coach and former player. He was the head coach of the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane from 2011 through 2014.[1] Before entering the college ranks, Blankenship was a successful high school coach for over 20 years and was named to the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009.[2]
Playing career
Blankenship played for the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane beginning in 1975 and served two stints as starting quarterback, 1977 and 1979.[2] While there, Blankenship played in the 1976 Independence Bowl.
Coaching career
Blankenship's high school coaching career included stints at Edmond Memorial High School, Spiro High School, Sapulpa High School, and Eastwood Christian School.[2]
Union High School
Blankenship served as the coach of Tulsa's Union High School for 14 years until 2005. There he compiled an overall 154-26 record. During his tenure, Union won eight consecutive district championships, qualified for the playoffs fourteen times, reached the quarterfinals ten times, participated in the state Class 6A championship seven times, and won the state title in 2002, 2004, and 2005. Union also amassed an unbroken home winning streak of 56 straight wins between the years 1997 and 2005.[2]
University of Tulsa
In 2005 Blankenship decided that he wanted to pursue seriously his goal of coaching at the college level. Days after winning his third state title in four years, he resigned as Union's head coach (and, later, as its athletic director). At the time, Blankenship said that he was resigning, in part, because otherwise potential employers would not believe he would be willing to leave his successful position at Union.[3] He spent the following year out of coaching,[4] and then accepted Tulsa Golden Hurricane head coach Todd Graham's offer to become receivers coach at Tulsa.[5] After the 2010 season, Graham left Tulsa to become the head coach at Pitt. After a brief search, Blankenship was named Tulsa's new head coach on January 14, 2011.[1] Blankenship's first two seasons as head coach were marked by success, including a conference championship and Liberty Bowl victory in 2012. But over the next two seasons, Tulsa won a total of only five games, and Tulsa fired Blankenship on December 1, 2014.[6]
Personal life
Bill and Angie Blankenship are the parents of three sons: Josh, Caleb and Adam, all of whom played football in high school and college. Josh Blankenship played quarterback at Tulsa before transferring to Eastern Washington,[7] where he was a second team Division I-AA All-American.[8] He later played arena football, including three years as quarterback of the Tulsa Talons; after working as an assistant coach at Union and elsewhere, in December 2010 he was named head coach at Muskogee High School.[9] Adam Blankenship played at Nebraska and Illinois State, was an assistant coach at Union, and in 2011 joined his father's new coaching staff at Tulsa.[10]
Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Conference USA) (2011–2013) | |||||||||
| 2011 | Tulsa | 8–5 | 7–1 | 2nd (West) | L Armed Forces | ||||
| 2012 | Tulsa | 11–3 | 7–1 | 1st (West) | W Liberty | ||||
| 2013 | Tulsa | 3–9 | 2–6 | 6th (West) | |||||
| Tulsa Golden Hurricane (American Athletic Conference) (2014–2014) | |||||||||
| 2014 | Tulsa | 2–10 | 2–6 | T–8th | |||||
| Tulsa: | 24–27 | 18–14 | |||||||
| Total: | 24–27 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title | |||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll. | |||||||||
Awards
- Merv Johnson Integrity in College Coaching Award, Oklahoma Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (2008).
- Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, 2009.
- Conference USA Coach of the Year, 2012.
References
- 1 2 Eric Bailey, "Bill Blankenship named new Tulsa football coach", Tulsa World, January 14, 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 "Bill Blankenship to be Head Coach at University of Tulsa", GTR Newspapers, January 14, 2011.
- ↑ Barry Lewis, "Blankenship resigns as Union coach", Tulsa World, December 6, 2005.
- ↑ Bill Haisten, "His search continues: Bill Blankenship still hasn't found the college job he wants", Tulsa World, May 30, 2006.
- ↑ David Jones, "Former Union Coach Bill Blankenship Enjoying Transition", GTR Newspapers, October 3, 2007.
- ↑ "Bill Blankenship Coaching Tenure at Tulsa Concludes". University of Tulsa. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
- ↑ Dave Sittler, "Promotion completes healing process for Bill Blankenship", Tulsa World, January 15, 2011.
- ↑ "100 for 100" All-Time Team -- Quarterbacks at Eastern Washington University official website (accessed January 22, 2011).
- ↑ Barry Lewis, "Muskogee hires Josh Blankenship as head coach", Tulsa World, December 24, 2010.
- ↑ Eric Bailey, "TU completes hiring football coaching staff", Tulsa World, January 22, 2011.
External links
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