Bill Blankenship

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]

Bill Blankenship
Biographical details
Born (1956-12-12) December 12, 1956
Spiro, Oklahoma
Playing career
1975–1979Tulsa
Position(s)Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1986–1989Spiro HS (OK)
1990–1991Edmond Memorial HS (OK)
1992–2005Union HS (OK)
2007Tulsa (WR)
2008Tulsa (ST)
2009–2010Tulsa (ST/RB)
2011–2014Tulsa
2016Fayetteville HS (AR)
2017–presentOwasso HS (OK)
Head coaching record
Overall24–27 (college)
Bowls1–1
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
C-USA Coach of the Year (2012)

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 in Oklahoma 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]

Fayetteville High School

On June 7, 2016, it was announced that Blankenship had accepted the vacant head coaching position at Fayetteville, a Class 7A program in Arkansas. In his only season at the school, he led Fayetteville to the Class 7A Arkansas state title.[7]

Owasso High School

On January 6, 2017, it was announced that Blankenship had accepted the vacant head coaching position at Owasso, a Class 6A-I program in Owasso, Oklahoma.[8] Owasso went on to win the Class 6A-1 Oklahoma State Championship by defeating Union High School 21-14, breaking the 21-year Union-Jenks streak.[9]

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,[10] where he was a second team Division I-AA All-American.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Head coaching record

College
Year Team Overall ConferenceStanding Bowl/playoffs Coaches# AP°
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Conference USA) (2011–2013)
2011 Tulsa 8–57–12nd (West)L Armed Forces
2012 Tulsa 11–37–11st (West)W Liberty25
2013 Tulsa 3–92–66th (West)
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (American Athletic Conference) (2014)
2014 Tulsa 2–102–6T–8th
Tulsa: 24–2718–14
Total:24–27
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

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. Eric Bailey, "Bill Blankenship named new Tulsa football coach", Tulsa World, January 14, 2011.
  2. "Bill Blankenship to be Head Coach at University of Tulsa" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, GTR Newspapers, January 14, 2011.
  3. Barry Lewis, "Blankenship resigns as Union coach", Tulsa World, December 6, 2005.
  4. Bill Haisten, "His search continues: Bill Blankenship still hasn't found the college job he wants", Tulsa World, May 30, 2006.
  5. David Jones, "Former Union Coach Bill Blankenship Enjoying Transition" Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, GTR Newspapers, October 3, 2007.
  6. "Bill Blankenship Coaching Tenure at Tulsa Concludes". University of Tulsa. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  7. "Source: Bill Blankenship to be named head Fayetteville coach". Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  8. "Bill Blankenship Resigns At Fayetteville For Head Coaching Job At Owasso". Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  9. World, Barry Lewis Tulsa. "High schools: Rams defeat Redskins for 6AI title". Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  10. Dave Sittler, "Promotion completes healing process for Bill Blankenship", Tulsa World, January 15, 2011.
  11. "100 for 100" All-Time Team -- Quarterbacks Archived July 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at Eastern Washington University official website (accessed January 22, 2011).
  12. Barry Lewis, "Muskogee hires Josh Blankenship as head coach", Tulsa World, December 24, 2010.
  13. Eric Bailey, "TU completes hiring football coaching staff", Tulsa World, January 22, 2011.
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