Legendary coach Paul Roach's death shocks the entire Cowboys fraternity; top brass pays final tribute: "Wyoming will be forever grateful to him"
Former Wyoming football coach and athletics director Paul Roach has died at 95, the school confirmed on Sunday.
Roach led the Cowboys to two back-to-back Western Athletic Conference championships (1987 and 1988) during his four-year reign as football team coach. He also holds a .700 winning percentage, the highest in the program's history.
Paul Roach is the only man in UW history to hold the head football coach role while simultaneously serving as the school's athletics director. He was the Cowboys coach from 1987 to 1990 and AD from 1987 to 1996.
Roach left the coaching job with a 35-15 record and stepped into the athletics director role full-time, appointing Joe Tiller as his successor for the coaching job.
The current UW athletics director, Tom Burman, released a statement after the news broke of Roach's passing.
"Coach Roach was so much more than a damn good coach," said Burman. "He was caring, smart, disciplined, funny, but most of all a great communicator. He knew when and how to say things—a skill few have, and he did it without an ego.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Marge and his entire family. Wyoming will be forever grateful to him. We will all miss Coach Roach!"
The University of Wyoming's information director, Kevin McKinney, also eulogized Roach.
“He was one of the most remarkable guys I have ever known,” Kevin McKinney said. “Not many guys could be the head football coach and the athletics director at the same time. He did it with a great personality, he did it in a normal way, and he was a great boss. He just wanted to help Wyoming."
Roach also served as the Cowboys offensive coordinator and backfield coach from 1962 to 1970.
The Paul Roach era at Wyoming
Paul Roach won the WAC Coach of the Year award twice and was a finalist for the National Coach of the Year award during his tenure as the Cowboys football coach.
McKinney told a funny anecdote of how Paul Roach got the Cowboys job after the abrupt departure of coach Dennis Erickson to Washington in 1987.
“The story was that Dennis left and left them in the lurch, of course. And (Roach) went in and says, ‘I will get you a good head coach,’” McKinney said. “He called a team meeting, came in and he goes, ‘I’ve got you a good coach, it’s me.’”
Speaking to the Star-Tribune, Tom Kilpatrick, who played tight end under Paul Roach, explained how the belief around Roach's team grew after they beat a strong BYU 29-27 during his first season as coach.
“I don’t think everybody 100 percent bought in until that win,” Tom Kilpatrick said. “That was the springboard for us and the reason why we won 16 straight conference games. And we knew Coach Roach cared about Wyoming."
Roach was an assistant for the Wyoming Cowboys for eight years between 1962 and 1970 under coach Lloyd Eaton before he left for the NFL. In the NFL, he was an assistant at the Oakland Raiders, Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos.