By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
ESPN has released its list of the 150 greatest coaches in the 150 years of college football.
Ranked number 86 is Northwest Missouri State University legendary coach Mel Tjeerdsma, who was in New York City when the news broke.
“And I got a text from somebody, a friend of mine, and said something about being number 86 and something and I didn’t know what the text was all about,” Tjeerdsma tells St. Joseph Post.
Tjeerdsma says he didn’t know until a former player sent him a text with the ESPN article attached.
“It’s pretty humbling when you look at it and, for me, it’s almost unbelievable when you see names like Bear Bryant and Tom Osborne, and some of the all-time great coaches,” Tjeerdsma says. “Even to be mentioned in the same article as them is pretty neat.”
Number one on the list is Bear Byrant with his overall record of 323-85-and-17; 232-46-9 during his time at Alabama from 1958 to 1982. Alabama’s Nick Saban is second, followed by Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, Tom Osborne of Nebraska, and Eddie Robinson of Grambling.
Tjeerdsma had an overall record of 242-82-and-4 at Austin and Northwest. With the Bearcats, Tjeerdsma was 183-43, winning the NCAA Division II national championship in 1998, 1999, and 2009. He became Athletic Director at Northwest in 2013 before retiring.
Tjeerdsma says he was surprised to be ranked 86th on the list, but was pleased to see other small college coaches recognized.
“They included all levels,” Tjeerdsma points out. “There were some NAIA coaches, a couple of NAIA coaches, on there. Frosty Westering made his mark really in NAIA before Pac Lutheran became Division III. I feel like, I guess I’m trying to justify it now, but I feel like they were pretty inclusive and did some thorough work.”
Westering, who ranked 39th, coached at Pacific Lutheran, a school of 3,100 students in Tacoma, Washington, winning three NAIA Division II national titles and one NCAA Division III national championship.
While Tjeerdsma is proud of his success on the field at Northwest, he is most proud of what his players have done after they graduated.
“There’s so many of those guys that just makes you so proud of what they’ve gone on to do once football has been over,” Tjeerdsma says. “I feel like our staff and how we influenced that in their lives, maybe we had at least a little bit of an impact on them.”