December 6, 2005
Release courtesy of Mark Adkins, Wartburg College sports information director

WAVERLY, IOWA . . . Wartburg College announced today that head football coach Rick Willis will step down from his coaching duties to become the college’s full-time director of athletics. The search for a new football coach will begin immediately.

Willis was named interim director of athletics last January but retained his coaching duties after former director of athletics Gary Grace became Wartburg’s vice president for administration. Grace joined the Wartburg staff in 1995 as the college’s first full-time director of athletics.

“We are pleased Rick has accepted this challenge,” said Wartburg President Dr. Jack R. Ohle. “Wartburg’s quality athletic programs deserve an director of athletics who can devote full energies to maintaining and advancing our unprecedented success in athletics over the past 10 years.”

Since 1996, the Knights have won 64 Iowa Conference team championships. On the national level, Wartburg has won five team national titles since 1996 and placed in the top 15 of the United States Sports Academy’s Division III Directors’ Cup standings for five straight years.

“This was a difficult decision for me,” said Willis. “The strong relationships I have formed with the coaching staff and the players and the success we have enjoyed make it difficult for me to step down. At the same time, I enjoy the administrative challenges associated with the director of athletics position. I look forward to the contributions I can make toward providing a meaningful experience for all of the student-athletes in Wartburg’s 19 men’s and women’s sports.”

Willis’ nine-year tenure has been instrumental in making Wartburg the fifth winningest football program in the nation over the past 13 years. His teams produced an overall record of 79-17 and a remarkable 63-9 run against Iowa Conference competition. Under Willis, the Knights won four conference championships and earned four NCAA playoff berths. For six consecutive years, the program has produced at least one academic All-American and six Aztec Bowl selections.

“We are embarking on a huge project with the new wellness center,” said Gary Grace, who with Ohle has been instrumental in forging a cooperative agreement between the college and the City of Waverly for the facility. “It will involve the relocation of offices and programs as the old facilities are razed and construction begins on the new center. Rick will play a pivotal role in this transition, and I look forward to working with him.”

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