For immediate release

October 26, 2005

DeGeorge to coach final home game Saturday

BELOIT, Wis. – Ed DeGeorge, the only head football coach Beloit College has known since 1977, will roam the Strong Stadium sidelines for the last time on Saturday as his Buccaneers play their final home game of the 2005 season. Beloit faces Midwest Conference rival Ripon College. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

DeGeorge announced his retirement at the beginning of the season and is coaching his 29^th and final year in 2005. He has amassed 132 victories during his illustrious career and is by far the winningiest coach in Beloit College history.

At Strong Stadium, DeGeorge has accumulated 75 of his victories. His teams went undefeated at home three times – in 1991, 1995, and 1998. In six other seasons – 1979, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1997, and 2002 – his Bucs lost only one game at Strong Stadium.

Entering the season, DeGeorge was tied for ninth among NCAA football coaches at all levels in active tenure at one school. He also was tied for 11^th on the active NCAA Division III football coaches victory list.

DeGeorge took over a moribund program in 1977 which had experienced only three winning campaigns during the previous 20 seasons and had had losing

records over the last nine years. In 1978, DeGeorge’s second at the helm, the Bucs posted a 4-4 overall record using a predominantly freshman lineup he had recruited. His teams have won six North Division Midwest Conference titles, and since installing the Wing-T offense in 1988, the Bucs have been outstanding in close games. From 1988-2004, Beloit is 40-22, a .645 winning percentage, in games decided by nine points or less. DeGeorge also served as the College’s athletic director from 1985 through the end of the

2003-04 academic year.

In 1984, DeGeorge led his Buccaneers to his first North Division championship. Beloit excelled in the 1990s, going 40-18 (69 percent) in Midwest Conference play. The Bucs captured the North in 1990, clinching the title with a dramatic come-from-behind win in overtime at St. Norbert. The following year, Beloit pulled out four games decided in the final seconds, including a 19-14 win at Ripon and a 7-0 blanking of St. Norbert to win the North crown again. The Bucs made it three for three in the ‘90s when they went 4-1 to win the division in 1992. In ‘94, Beloit came back from deficits in every MWC victory to claim the North title at 4-1. The Bucs then captured their fifth title in six years, as they shared the 1995 MWC North Division championship with Ripon. Overall, Beloit was 58-38 during the decade.

DeGeorge’s teams have been known for their hard-hitting defense and punishing running game. He has coached nine 1,000-yard rushers, paced by 1994 graduate and Beloit College Athletic Hall of Honor inductee Steve Dixon. Dixon is among 222 all-conference athletes and 126 first-team performers who played for DeGeorge at Beloit.

DeGeorge came to Beloit from Colorado College where he played both offensive and defensive end for the Tigers’ football squad. After graduating in 1964, he served two years in the U.S. Army (one in Vietnam where he was wounded) and coached in high school for one year. He then began coaching at his alma mater, serving as the defensive coordinator and linebacker coach. He came to Beloit 10 years later.

DeGeorge grew up in Butte, Mont. He married his wife, Nancy, in 1964 and has three sons: Joe, Dave, and Mike. All three of his sons have been NCAA Division III coaches. Dave DeGeorge is the head baseball coach at Beloit as well as an assistant football coach. Mike is the head basketball coach at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Joe, an all-conference player at Beloit and a football coach for nearly two decades, has entered the business world. Ed and Nancy have six grandchildren.

A dinner and ceremony honoring DeGeorge will take place Saturday evening following the game. A tailgate party is scheduled from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Strong Stadium complex.

The Bucs finish the 2005 season on the first two Saturdays in November with road games at Illinois and Grinnell colleges.