Remembering Vic Rowen

Sometimes the best football coaches, the most influential coaches are those that few know. Many are the coaches that stay at high schools and small colleges. We only hear of them when those that were influenced by them speak of them. Vic Rowen passed away last Friday at 93. He was the head football coach at San Francisco State for 29 years. He was one of those coaches that influenced many that went on to influence even more. His coaching continues.

Floyd Peters, Bob Toledo and Gil Haskell played for Rowen. Each took some of that teaching into coaching themselves. Jim Sochor, Dirk Koetter, Andy Reid and Mike Holmgren all coached for Rowen. Each found their very successful coaching careers greatly influenced early by Rowen.

Vic Rowen was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1919. He played end at Long Island University and later earned a doctorate in physical education at Columbia. He was a staff sergeant in the U.S. 101st Airborne during World War II. After the war he played football professionally for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All America Football Conference. He went into coaching in 1951 at Defiance College in Ohio. In 1954 he became an assistant coach under Joe Verducci at San Francisco State. The Gators were a football powerhouse in those days. Rowen became the head coach in 1961 and continued the dominance that Verducci had started. Rowen's San Francisco State teams would win five Far Western Conference titles in the 1960s. It all changed at the end of that turbulent decade when a student strike hit the campus. Football was seen in an entirely different light after that. It was never the same but Vic Rowen remained and did the best that he could for his players and his coaches. His teaching remained the same as did his influence on coaches like Holmgren and Reid.

Vic Rowen retired in 1989 and it wasn't long after that football was dropped at San Francisco State. Rowen's coaching continues in the coaching of Andy Reid and Dirk Koetter. Even terrific college coaches like TCU's Gary Patterson and Boise St's Chris Peterson can be linked to the coaching of Rowen through their time at UC Davis with Jim Sochor. Rowen's coaching was far more successful than his 132-173-10 record. His success can be better measured in those that he influenced. Those that he coached.