1. James Wilfred "Bill" Orwig was an American football and basketball player, coach, and college athletics administrator.
33 Facts About Bill Orwig
1. 2.
Bill Orwig played college football and college basketball at the University of Michigan.
3.
Bill Orwig received three varsity letters in basketball and one in football.
4.
Bill Orwig helped develop an athletic program for the occupation forces in Germany and became the athletic director, football coach, and basketball coach at the University of Toledo after World War II.
5.
From 1948 to 1951, Bill Orwig was an assistant football coach at Michigan in charge of ends, participating in Michigan's 1948 national championship team and the 1950 team that won the Big Ten championship and the Rose Bowl.
6.
Bill Orwig accepted a job as athletic director at the University of Nebraska in 1954 and remained there for seven years.
7.
Bill Orwig hired Bobby Knight as basketball coach at Indiana, and has been inducted into the Halls of Fame at Indiana, Michigan and Toledo.
8.
Bill Orwig was picked as an All-Big Ten basketball player in 1930.
9.
Bill Orwig played at the end position for the Michigan football team in 1928.
10.
Bill Orwig graduated from the School of Education in 1930.
11.
From 1930 to 1931, Orwig was a graduate assistant working with Michigan's freshman football team, and tutoring freshman player and future US President Gerald R Ford.
12.
In May 1931, Bill Orwig succeeded Wally Weber as head football coach at Benton Harbor High School in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
13.
Bill Orwig coached the basketball and tennis teams, and in 1934, he led the first Benton Harbor basketball team ever to win a regional championship.
14.
Bill Orwig coached Earl Brown at Benton Harbor, who went on to be an All-American at Notre Dame.
15.
At Libbey, Bill Orwig's teams won three state football championships and six city basketball crowns.
16.
Bill Orwig worked with the US State Department during World War II, helping to set up an athletic program for the occupation forces in Germany.
17.
Bill Orwig was hired in 1946 as the athletic director at the University of Toledo, where he helped reinstate the athletic programs after the end of World War II.
18.
Bill Orwig returned to Michigan in 1948 as an assistant football coach under Bennie Oosterbaan, and was one of the coaches on Michigan's undefeated 1948 national championship team, and its 1950 Rose Bowl championship team.
19.
Bill Orwig remained as an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1948 to 1953.
20.
In March 1954, Bill Orwig signed a three-year contract as the athletic director at the University of Nebraska for $12,600 a year.
21.
Bill Orwig remained at Nebraska until 1961, and during his tenure the Corhuskers started to emerge into national prominence.
22.
Bill Orwig was responsible during his seven years at Nebraska for creating the Touchdown Club, the Extra Point Club and the Husker Athletic Achievement Awards.
23.
Bill Orwig was the athletic director who hired Pete Elliott as the football coach at Nebraska in 1956.
24.
Bill Orwig was the athletic director at Indiana University from 1961 to 1975.
25.
Bill Orwig took over as athletic director in February 1961, ten months into a four-year NCAA probation.
26.
Home football attendance at Indiana averaged 25,854 the year before Bill Orwig arrived, and by 1969 it had more than doubled to 53,319.
27.
Bill Orwig guided the expansion of the school's athletic facilities, including the Assembly Hall basketball facility.
28.
The architect of all that, Bill Orwig, is in the college athletic directors hall of fame.
29.
Bill Orwig held Ralph Beard to 3 points, one basket and one free throw, and as a result of the great work that this little guy did on Ralph Beard, and of course, the work of his teammates, Utah won the game and won the National Invitation Tournament Championship.
30.
Since 1976, the Bill Orwig Medal has been awarded each year by the Indiana University Alumni Association to recognize outstanding contributions made by a non-alumnus to the IU athletic program.
31.
Bill Orwig was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1984 and the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1987.
32.
Bill Orwig has been inducted into the Toledo Rockets' Varsity 'T' Hall of Fame.
33.
Bill Orwig died of cancer on July 30,1994, in St Joseph, Michigan.