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WCU Head Coaching History
WESTERN CAROLINA – ALL-TIME HEAD COACH RECORDS
NAME YEARS SEASONS W L T PCT
C.C. Poindexter 1931–34 4 seasons 10 26 2 .290
Ralph James
1935–38 4 seasons James Whatley 1939–41 3 seasons Marion McDonald 1945 1 season 4 30 3 .149 6 15 1 .295 1 3 0 .250
Tom Young Dan Robinson 1946–55 10 seasons 1956–68 13 seasons 39 55 4 .418 51 67 6 .435
Bob Waters 1969–88 20 seasons 116 94 6 .550
Dale Strahm 1989 1 season 3 7 1 .318
Steve Hodgin Bill Bleil
Kent Briggs 2002–2007 6 seasons Dennis Wagner 2008–2011 4 seasons Mark Speir 2012–2020 9 seasons
Kerwin Bell 2021– 1 season 22 43 0 .388 8 36 0 .182 33 68 0 .327 4 7 0 .364
TOTALS 1931–2021 88 SEASONS 351 527 23 .403
An accomplished quarterback and 12 year veteran head coach who won a combined four conference championships and the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championship, KERWIN BELL was named the 14th head football coach at Western Carolina University on April 27, 2021.
C.C. POINDEXTER was the first person hired to work exclusively in athletics when he became the school's first athletic director and football coach in 1931.
DAN ROBINSON (1956-68) is one of only two coaches to amass over 50 wins as the Catamounts’ head coach. JIM WHATLEY (left) served as head coach from 1939-41, while MARION MCDONALD (right), twice an assistant coach for the Catamounts, was Western Carolina’s head coach for the 1945 season.
BOB WATERS was head coach from 1969-88. He remains the school’s all-time winningest head football coach with 116 victories. DALE STRAHM led WCU for just one season during in 1989. TOM YOUNG served as head football coach for nine seasons (1946-55).
STEVE HODGIN served as WCU’s head coach for six years (1990-96), after being an assistant for nine seasons.
