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), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

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 nearly 70 areas of study in undergraduate majors, minors, and programs through 19 academic departments organized in thre ...

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was established by the banks of the DuPage river, ...

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 university, universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of c ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

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, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explora ...

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, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

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

Kappa Sigma Fraternity Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...

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 and former player who currently serves as the Defensive Coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL. He was the head football coach at the University of Florida fro ...

, 2005–2011

Men's basketball

Lon Kruger Lonnie Duane Kruger (born August 19, 1952) is a retired American college and professional basketball coach who was most recently the men's basketball head coach of the University of Oklahoma. Kruger played college basketball for Kansas State Uni ...

, 1996–2000 *

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas, a position he has held since 2003. During his 19 seasons as head coach, he has led the Jayhawks to ...

, 2000–2003 * Bruce Weber, 2004–2012

Women's basketball

Theresa Grentz Theresa Marie Shank Grentz (born March 24, 1952) is an American college basketball coach. Her coaching career spanned five decades, with over 680 career wins, multiple national and conference coaching awards, and a national championship. She is ...

, 1995–2006 * Jolette Law, 2007–2012

Women's volleyball

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

Men's tennis

Craig Tiley Craig Tiley (born 1962) is a South African tennis executive and retired U.S. college tennis coach. Tiley is the current CEO of Tennis Australia, which is the governing body that oversees tennis in Australia. He is also the Director of the Aust ...

, 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 People from Elmhurst, Illinois Players of American football from DuPage County, Illinois