Bill Ramseyer didn’t have to go to the Super Bowl to get a game ball. The Super Bowl came to him, in a manner of speaking.
The Bluffton High School and Bluffton College student athlete, and once again Bluffton resident, Ramseyer was presented a Super Bowl football directly from Wilson’s Sporting Goods in Ada. All Super Bowl footballs are created by Wilson’s in Ada.
Today, a resident of Willow Ridge-Betty House, Ramseyer made his career in coaching football, for 44 seasons. And, in the summer of 2020 was nominated for membership in the 2021 class of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Ramseyer’s short version
Coached at Wilmington from 1972 to 1990,
Coaches at Virginian’s College at Wise, 1991-2001,
Three-time District Coach of the Year
Member of seven different Hall of Fames, including NAIA in 1997
Coached 24 of 30 winning seasons as a head coach
Coached Wilmington to an NAIA National Runner-Up in 1980
Coached 70 All-Americans.
Ramseyer’s long version
The 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.
In 2020 he was nominated as a potential member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
