Roland Ortmayer | |
Birth Date: | 22 August 1917 |
Birth Place: | College Park, Maryland, U.S. |
Player Sport1: | Football |
Player Years2: | 1937 |
Player Team2: | Northwestern |
Player Positions: | Halfback |
Coach Sport1: | Football |
Coach Years2: | 1940 |
Coach Team2: | Highland Park HS (IL) |
Coach Years3: | 1941 |
Coach Team3: | Dobyns-Bennett HS (TN) (assistant) |
Coach Years4: | 1946–1947 |
Coach Team4: | William Penn |
Coach Years5: | 1948–1990 |
Coach Team5: | La Verne |
Coach Sport6: | Basketball |
Coach Years7: | 1946–1948 |
Coach Team7: | William Penn |
Coach Sport8: | Baseball |
Coach Years9: | 1946–1948 |
Coach Team9: | William Penn |
Overall Record: | 182–209–8 (college football) 7–31 (college basketball) 5–20 (college baseball) |
Championships: | Football 2 SCIAC (1975, 1982) |
Roland J. Ortmayer (August 22, 1917 – October 8, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa from 1946 to 1947 and the University of La Verne in La Verne, California from 1948 to 1990.[1] Ortmayer was noted for his unorthodox approach to the sport of football. He held non-mandatory practices and did not require offseason weight training for his players.[2] When he retired, his career record of 182–209–8 gave him the most loses of any college football coach in history. His record for career losses was surpassed by Watson Brown, who retired with 211 losses in 2015.[3]
Ortmayer taught and coached at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois before he was hired, in 1941, as an assistant coach at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee.[4]