Bluffton resident Bill Ramseyer is a finalist for membership in the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame.
The announcement was released by the Hall, located in Atlanta, Ga., earlier this week.
Ramseyer, a 1954 Bluffton High School and 1958 Bluffton College graduate, has more than 30 years of coaching experience, compiling a career college football record of 176–104–4.
After a lifelong career of college coaching and college athletic administration, he and his wife, Mary, returned to Bluffton to retire.
His sports career began as a Bluffton High School student. Here he was a member of the football, basketball, baseball and track teams, where he earned nine letters.
At Bluffton College, Ramseyer participated in football and track, where he was a part of two league-champion teams and earned six letters.
In the 1960s he coached for two years at Bluffton College. He was head baseball, wrestling coach and defensive coordinator for the 1967 Beaver Mid-Ohio League championship football team. In 1988 he was inducted into the Bluffton College athletic hall of fame.
He received a master’s degree in physical education at BGSU and doctorate from University of Missouri. He served four years as head scout and an assistant football coach at the University of Missouri.
A three-time district coach of the year, Ramseyer is inducted in seven hall of fames. Over his career, the coach guided his teams to winning seasons in 24 of the 30 seasons he coached while seeing 70 student-athletes earn All-America accolades.
He served as the head football coach at Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, from 1972 to 1990 compiling a 98-46-3 record in 16 consecutive winning seasons. Ramseyer led Wilmington to three NAIA playoff appearances in 1980, 1982 and 1983, reaching the Division II National Championship game in 1980.
He was professor of health, physical education and recreation at Wilmington College, as well as athletics director and head football coach.
After coaching at Wilmington, he became the first-ever football coach at University of Virginia’s College at Wise UVA (Clinch Valley College), where he guided the Highland Cavaliers to a pair of playoff appearances and an undefeated regular season in 1996.
College Football Hall of Fame
The announcement of the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class Presented by ETT will be made in early 2021, with specific details to be announced in the future.
The 2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class Presented by ETT will be officially inducted during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 7, 2021, at the New York Hilton Midtown.
They will also be honored at their respective schools with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during the 2021 season.
