SJU Football

John Gagliardi

SJU Football Coach

Saint John's University legendary head coach John Gagliardi is celebrating his 50th season as head coach in Collegeville during the 2002 season. Gagliardi is in his 54th season as a collegiate head football coach. The winningest active coach and second all-time in college football history, Gagliardi currently owns a 397-113-11 collegiate career record, as of the end of the 2002 regular season on Nov. 16. Gagliardi is now 11 wins away from the all-time collegiate win record of 408, set by former Grambling head coach Eddie Robinson.

Gagliardi's coaching career began when his high school coach (Trinidad, Colo. Catholic) was drafted into World War II. Gagliardi, as captain, took over the reins at the age of 16 in 1943. His teams won four conference titles in Gagliardi's six years of coaching high school.

After graduation from Colorado College in 1949, his first college coaching position was at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. The college was thinking about dropping football because of losing seasons and lack of interest.

Gagliardi led Carroll to three conference titles in his first four seasons as a college coach. Gagliardi coached basketball and baseball and also won championships. This success caught the attention of Saint John's University. Saint John's needed a coach to succeed the legendary Johnny "Blood" McNally, a charter member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

Compared to Carroll, Saint John's football program was healthy before Gagliardi's arrival but not exactly thriving. SJU had not won a conference title in 15 years. Gagliardi took over the program in 1953 with a mandate to turn the program around. Meanwhile, Blood offered this gloomy prediction: "Nobody could ever win at Saint John's."

Once again, Gagliardi surprised the skeptics by winning the MIAC title that fall. He also won championships with SJU's track team. He also coached the SJU hockey team for five seasons, compiling a 42-25-1 record, which is still the best career winning percentage of any hockey coach in school history.  He has won in every sport he has coached.

Read more about the SJU Gagliardi Legend.
Read a recent article from Northwest Airlines WorldTraveler magazine.