James Rexilius (April 23, 1932 – June 25, 2003) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach. He was one of the more prominent and successful coaches in the Chicago area during his career. In 1992, he was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches ''Hall of Fame''.

Coaching career

High school

Rexilius spent most of his career as the coach at

Wheaton North High School Wheaton North High School (WNHS), locally referred to as "North" is a public four-year high school in Wheaton, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. It is one of two high schools that are part of Community Unit School District 200, the other be ...

where he coached

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

and other sports.Michael Kates
"James `Jim' Rexilius, 71, longtime Wheaton N. coach,"
''Chicago Tribune'', June 26, 2003. Retrieved April 11, 2013. In his 27-year coaching career, Rexilius twice led his high-school teams to state championships—first in 1979 and again in 1986 after returning to the secondary-school level. When he retired as head coach, his overall high school record was 177 wins and 77 losses. It was at Wheaton North that he mentored a young

Chuck Long Charles Franklin Long Jr. (born February 18, 1963) is an American football coach and former player who is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Arlington Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He played as a quarter ...

toward a career in coaching.

Wheaton

Rexilius was head football coach at Wheaton College in

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a city in and the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois, United States. It is located in Milton and Winfield Townships, approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, Wheaton's population was 53,970, making it the 27th-mos ...

for the 1981 season, compiling a record of 2–7.

References

1932 births 2003 deaths Wheaton Thunder football coaches High school football coaches in Illinois {{1980s-collegefootball-coach-stub