Ronald E. Guenther (born October 3, 1945) is a former

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 ...

player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at

North Central College North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has 73 undergraduate majors of study, 17 minors, 25 graduate programs, and 4 certificate programs offered by four undergradu ...

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago located west of the city on the DuPage River. As of the 2020 United State ...

from 1975 to 1978, compiling a record of 22–12–2. Guenther was the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

from 1992 until he retired on July 1, 2011.

Education and playing career

Guenther is a graduate of the University of Illinois, having earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

in 1967 and an M.S. in administration in 1968. Guenther also played football at Illinois, lettering in 1965 and 1966 as an

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line (OL), while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line ( ...

as well as being named second-team All-Big Ten and the team MVP in 1966. While at Illinois, Guenther was a member of

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig or KSig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international Fraternities and sororities in North America, fr ...

fraternity.

Administrative career

University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman was quoted in July, 2006 as saying: "If he's not the best AD in the country, I want to know who is." and "He does a wonderful job of bringing in great coaches and building a team that understands what athletics is and needs to be about." (Herman was later relieved of his duties after a scholarship scandal.)

Coaches hired

Football

* Ron Turner, 1997–2004 *

Ron Zook Ronald Andrew Zook (; born April 28, 1954) is an American football coach who is a special teams quality control coach at the University of Maryland. He was the head football coach at the University of Florida from 2002 to 2004 and the Universit ...

, 2005–2011

Men's basketball

Lon Kruger Lonnie Duane Kruger (born August 19, 1952) is an American former college and professional basketball coach (sport), coach who was most recently the men's basketball head coach of the University of Oklahoma. Kruger played college basketball for K ...

, 1996–2000 *

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level an ...

, 2000–2003 * Bruce Weber, 2004–2012

Women's basketball

* Theresa Grentz, 1995–2006 * Jolette Law, 2007–2012

Women's volleyball

*Don Hardin, 1996–2009 * Kevin Hambly, 2009–2017

Men's tennis

* Craig Tiley, 1993-2005 * Brad Dancer, 2006–current

Women's tennis

* Michelle Dasso, 2006–2015

Men's Track and Field

* Wayne Angel, 2003–2009

Wrestling

* Jim Heffernan, 2009–2021

Facility construction

* Atkins Tennis Center * Reconstruction of Memorial Stadium * Pending decision to renovate

Assembly Hall An assembly hall is a hall to hold public meetings or meetings of an organization such as a school, church, or deliberative assembly. An example of the last case is the Assembly Hall (Washington, Mississippi) where the general assembly of the s ...

or build a new basketball arena, expected in early 2009

Criticism

Guenther came under fire for an outburst during the 2007 NCAA Tournament, calling an Illini player an "idiot". Guenther has also been widely criticized by Illinois fans for the poor performance of the Illinois football team during his tenure.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guenther, Ron 1945 births Living people American football offensive linemen Boston College Eagles football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini athletic directors Illinois Fighting Illini football players North Central Cardinals football coaches High school football coaches in Illinois Sportspeople from Elmhurst, Illinois Players of American football from DuPage County, Illinois