Contact Coach Douds
E-mail: dennisd@po-box.esu.edu
Phone: (570) 422-3322

Denny Douds enters his 36th season as the head football coach at East Stroudsburg University as the all-time winningest coach in the history of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, a mark that he reached last fall with the 213th win of his career, a 44-41 overtime victory against Shippensburg.

Douds is one of four active coaches in NCAA Division II, and one of just 15 coaches in all of college football, with at least 200 career victories. The elite company includes legendary coaches John Gagliardi, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. He brings a 218-142-3 record into the 2009 campaign.

The Warriors were 9-2 in 2008, the eighth 9-win season in school history and the seventh under Douds' leadership. ESU has posted a winning record eight times this decade and a mark of 69-30 since the beginning of the 2000 season, which includes two PSAC East championships and two NCAA Division II Playoff appearances.

ESU's seven straight winning seasons from 2000-06 was the longest such streak of Douds' career. ESU put together six consecutive winning seasons from 1975-1980 after going 5-5 in Douds' first season at the helm of the program in 1974, and he has sported a winning record as a head coach ever since.

ESU made its second and third appearances in the NCAA Division II Playoffs in 2004 and 2005, joining the 1991 squad which also advanced to the postseason. In 2005, the Warriors won three straight playoff games to claim the Northeast Region championship before bowing out in the national semifinals. ESU's 11-3 record set a school record for wins in a single season.

The senior head football coach in the PSAC continues to bring the same love and enthusiasm for coaching young men as when he took over as head coach in 1974. Douds is in his 44th season on the ESU coaching staff.

A native of Indiana, Pa., Douds was a high school coach in Erie, Pa. for two years and an assistant coach at West Virginia University for one year before accepting an assistant coach position at ESU.

He started as the Warriors' tight ends and linebackers coach under head coach Charlie Reese, and then became the team's defensive coordinator in 1968. After eight seasons assisting Reese, Douds took over as the school's eighth head football coach in 1974.

Dating back to Jack Gregory (1959-65) and Reese (1966-73), ESU has had just three head football coaches in the last half-century.

Under Douds' direction, the Warriors have captured nine PSAC Eastern Division titles with solo first-place finishes in 1975, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983 and 1991 and ties for the top spot in 1980, 2002 and 2003.

Before the PSAC championship game was eliminated in 1987, the Warriors won overall crowns in 1975, 1978 and 1982 and tied for the title with Shippensburg in 1976.

The 1975 and 1976 teams were both unbeaten and compiled a 19-game winning streak before the 14-14 tie with Shippensburg in the 1976 PSAC title game. The 1978 squad finished 10-1 and scored the most one-sided win in PSAC championship game history, winning 49-4 over Clarion.

The 1982 team won the school's first ever Lambert Trophy as the top Division II football team in the East and was selected as the ECAC Division II Team of the Year.

The 1991 squad gained the school's first-ever NCAA Division II Playoff berth after winning the PSAC Eastern Division title, while the 2004 team advanced to the second round of the playoffs and tied the previous school record for wins with a 10-2 mark.

The 2005 team broke the school record with 11 wins, won the Lambert Trophy and produced five All-America selections. Record-setting quarterback Jimmy Terwilliger received the Harlon Hill Award as the most outstanding player in Division II football, and was joined on All-America teams by kicker Mark Brubaker, fullback Anthony Carfagno, punter Ken Parrish and wide receiver Evan Prall. The 2008 squad featured two All-Americans in punter Nick Krut and linebacker Matt Freed.

Terwilliger, the son of offensive coordinator Mike Terwilliger, has played a significant role in the latest chapter of Douds' career. Terwilliger graduated in 2006 with 16 ESU and 15 NCAA records, including tying the all-division record with 148 touchdown passes. He also holds Division II records for passing yards (14,350) and total offense (16,064). Terwilliger threw for 4,571 yards and 50 touchdowns to claim the Harlon Hill Award as a junior.

Douds has been honored by his peers many times. He was named the Kodak College Division Coach of the Year three times (1975, 1976, 1982), the PSAC Coach of the Year twice (1975, 1978) and the PSAC Eastern Division Coach of the Year three times (1976, 1982, 2002).

In 1976, he was the first unanimous winner of the Stan Lomax-Irving T. Marsh Award as selected by the New York Football Writers' Association as the Eastern College Division Coach of the Year.

As a player, Douds was a standout lineman for Slippery Rock University as a right guard on offense and a nose tackle on defense. His play earned him All-Conference, All-State and NAIA All-America honors. He was named the school's outstanding senior athlete in 1962-63.

That same year, Douds was co-captain of the Slippery Rock football team which won the conference title by beating ESSC, 13-6, in the 1962 State Game.

He has been an active member of the American Football Coaches' Association and is an active volunteer for charitable and church activities in the community.

In addition to his football coaching duties at ESU, Douds is an assistant professor of Sport Studies. He is one of the few PSAC head coaches who also teach in the classroom.

He is a member of four Athletic Halls of Fame - ESU, Slippery Rock University, Indiana County and Northeast Pennsylvania. He was inducted into the ESU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Douds and his wife Judy, also a Slippery Rock graduate, have been married for 45 years and have two children and five grandchildren.