RIP Joe Tiller

[Steak Snabler]

Pretty good coach at Purdue and Wyoming. Credited with coining the term "basketball on grass."

He was 74:

Joe Tiller: 1942-2017

 

[Songbird]

Wiki ...

His best team was the 1996 unit, which notched a 10-2 record (7-1 in WAC play winning the Pacific Division[8]), but was left out of a bowl after losing to BYU in the inaugural WAC Championship game—to date, the last team to finish ranked in a major poll and not receive a bowl invitation while still being eligible to go.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Meanwhile, Bill Snyder will become football's Abe Vigoda.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Tiller seemed like a fun guy to cover, in my limited interactions covering a rival school. And a hell of a coach.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

This'll sound cliche but I didn't even know he was sick.

RIP to a guy who dragged the Big 10 kicking and screaming into the 20th century.

 

[micropolitan guy]

He played on the same team as Dennis Erickson at Montana State, I think. Or just before Erickson and Jan Stenerud. He and Erickson are branches on the Jim Sweeney coaching tree.

 

[Songbird]

Born in the same town as Jamie Farr.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Tiller didn't invent the style of offense, but as stated above, he helped transform the Big Ten. And was pretry good to deal with, in my experience.

 

[jr/shotglass]

He took a comatose Purdue program and made it a destination for a little while. Good coach.

RIP.

 

[LanceyHoward]

He played on the same team as Dennis Erickson at Montana State, I think. Or just before Erickson and Jan Stenerud. He and Erickson are branches on the Jim Sweeney coaching tree.

The coaches on the Jim Sweeney coaching tree were the largely responsible for the one tight end, three wide receiver offense becoming popular. When Jack Elway, another guy who coached for Sweeney, got the Cal-State Northridge head coaching job he enrolled his son, John, at the prep power house of the San Fernando Valley, Granada Hills. The coach was a guy named Jack Nuemeier, who was running a three wide receiver, one tight end offense. Jack Elway put the offense in at Cal State Northridge and later at San Jose State and Stanford. Erickson and Tiller, who knew Elway from the Washington State staff, picked up the offense from Elway and took it to their various stops.

 

[User 149557]

Born in the same town as Jamie Farr.

Not sure I'd call a city of 280,000 people a town. ;)

 

[Cape_Fear]

I talked with him a few years ago for a story. and he couldn't have been nicer. It was two days before Christmas and I only needed a few minutes. He gave me an hour and it's possible we'd still be talking. RIP.