Joe Yukica 1931-2022

Joe Yukica, who left a successful run as head coach at Boston College to take over the Dartmouth program and led the Big Green to three Ivy League championships – including one with a quarterback named Buddy Teevens – has passed away at age 90. Find a story HERE.

(You may have to click this video a second time to get it to play.)

Find a 2018 column spun out of Yukica's induction into the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame headlined,  Joe Yukica Is a ‘Man of Quiet Dignity’ HERE. The story details not just his start in football, but how he let a senior quarterback named Buddy Teevens call his own plays, the advice he gave Teevens about life as a football coach, and about how he (Yukica) fought for the right to coach his final season after Dartmouth fired him, with none other than Joe Paterno flying into rural New Hampshire to testify in his behalf.

The Los Angeles Times archives has a story about Yukica standing up for what he believed was right under the headline, He Fought the System. . .And Won : Dartmouth Fired Joe Yukica, but Joe Yukica Fired Back and Regained Job as Football Coach. (LINK)

Find a story about the coach in retirement HERE and watch the full video interview from the 2012 Joe Yukica New Hampshire Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame 25th anniversary dinner HERE.

This is from the Dartmouth press guide for the 1986 season, Joe Yukica's last as the Big Green head coach:

In eight seasons as head football coach at Dartmouth College, Joe Yukica has led the Big Green to three Ivy League championships. In 1982 Yukica's team won five of its final six games to finish with a 5-2 Ivy mark to earn a share of the title with Pennsylvania and Harvard. In 1981 Dartmouth shared the title with Yale after posting a 6-1 mark. And in 1978, Yukica's first season in Hanover, the Green won the title outright with a 6-1 Ivy League mark.

Yukica reached the 100-victory milestone in the final game of the 1982 season, and now has a 20-year head coaching record of 108-87-3. He is ranked among the top 10 in Division 1-AA for most coaching victories.

Joseph M. (Joe) Yukica was named Dartmouth's 18th head coach in lanuary, 1978. Following his first season at Dartmouth he was named Coach-of-the Year for the second time by the New England Football Writers Association and UPI. That same year he was selected District 1 Coach-of-the-Year by the American Football Coaches Association.

Yukica's 1979 and 1980 teams finished with 4-3 Ivy marks. The 1979 team won the final three games of the season and was 4-4-1 overall. The 1980 squad won two of its last of three games to finish 4-6 overall. The 1983 team, despite a rash of injuries, led the Ivy League until the final day of the season, finishing with a 4-2-1 record in Ivy play. The 1985 squad went 2-2-1 in the 

final five Ivy games to set the tone for this season. In eight years at Dartmouth, his overall record is 33-41-3. Against the Ivies, Yukica is 33-24-2.

Before coming to Dartmouth, Yukica spent 10 years as head coach at Boston College. There Yukica-led teams won 68 games and lost only 37 for an outstanding .648 winning percentage. He is still the winningest coach in Boston College history. While at B.C. Yukica led his team against national powerhouses such as Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas, and served as head coach the East-West Shrine Classic and the Blue-Gray Classic.

When Yukica took over as head coach at Dartmouth in 1978 he was no stranger to the Big Green program. From 1961-65 he had served as an assistant on the Dartmouth coaching staff  of Bob Blackman. He helped Dartmouth win or share three Ivy League titles during that span, working as coach of the Big Green receivers. During those years he coached several All-Ivy receivers, three Dartmouth captains and All-America Ed Long '66.

Yukica played his college football at Penn State under the legendary Coach Rip Engle. He was one of the top receivers in the East on the 1950-52 Nittany Lion teams. He began his coaching career in 1953 when he returned to his alma mater as assistant freshman coach while earning his master's degree. He then stayed in the area one more year as coach of the State College High School football team.

In 1955 Yukica moved to Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, Pa., then a new regional school, to start a football program. In just three years he built a powerhouse and in 1958 was named Coach-of-the-Year for his undefeated team. His 1959 squad finished with a 9-1 record, giving him an overall mark of 19-1 in his final two seasons.

Following his success at Central Dauphin, Yukica moved in 1960 to West Chester (Pa.) State College, where he served as end coach on the Ram team that won the tough, Pennsylvania Conference championship that season. He first came to Dartmouth in 1961.

After five years as an assistant at Dartmouth, Yukica moved on to a head coaching job at the University of New Hampshire. There he revitalized a Wildcat program that had won only one game in the previous two seasons. Yukica finished with a two-year record of 7-9 and was named UPI New England Coach-of-the-Year for his 1967 team that won five games and lost three by a total of only eight points.

Yukica was named Boston College's 27th head coach in 1967, and in his first season at Chestnut Hill turned a losing team into winner, posting a 6-3 record. He was again named Coach-of-the-Year in 1971 when he guided the Eagles to a 9-2 record. 

Editor's Note: I knew Joe Yukica well and liked him a great deal. He was a good man. I clearly remember sitting in his office interviewing him late in his career at Dartmouth when things weren't going well. Talking about yet another loss he said it was like working in the steel mill all week long and come Friday being handed an envelope that is supposed to have your pay in it only to find it empty.

When That Certain Nittany Lion '16 was playing fourth- and fifth-grade football, one of his assistant coaches was none other than Joe Yukica, whose grandson was on the team. I marveled listening to him gently teaching young boys the game that had meant so much to him, and he had meant so much to. It was an honor knowing him. He will be missed.