Bill Orwig
American football player and coach
Died when: 87 years 214 days (1051 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
James Wilfred "Bill" Orwig (January 1, 1907 – July 30, 1994) was an American football and basketball player, coach, and college athletics administrator.He played college football and college basketball at the University of Michigan.
He later served as the athletic director at the University of Toledo, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the Indiana University Bloomington.
Raised in Toledo, Ohio, Orwig was an all-state athlete in high school and went on to be an All-Big Ten Conference basketball player at Michigan.
He received three varsity letters in basketball and one in football.After graduating from Michigan, Orwig was a successful high school football and basketball coach from 1931 to 1945 in Benton Harbor, Michigan and Toledo.
He 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.
From 1948 to 1951, 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.
He accepted a job as athletic director at the University of Nebraska in 1954 and remained there for seven years.In 1961, he was hired as athletic director at Indiana University and led the Hoosiers from a four-year NCAA probation to 37 Big Ten Conference championships and seven NCAA championships.
He hired Bobby Knight as basketball coach at Indiana, and has been inducted into the Halls of Fame at Indiana, Michigan and Toledo.