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Legendary Virginia head coach George Welsh dies

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Former Virginia head football coach and College Football Hall of Famer George Welsh has died at the age of 85.

Welsh was the head coach for the Cavaliers from 1982-2000, posting a 134-86-3 record in his career. He guided his teams to 12 bowl appearances and two ACC titles, tying for first in 1989 and 1995. He was a four-time ACC Coach of the Year and the 1991 recipient of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.

Prior coaching at Virginia, Welsh was the head coach at Navy, his alma mater. He served as the leader of that program from 1973-1981, compiling a 55-46-1 record. The Midshipmen attended three bowl games under his direction.

Welsh’s career record has a head coach was 189-132-4. He coached in 15 bowl games in his career.

Prior to becoming a head coach, Welsh was an assistant at Penn State from 1963-1972. Most of those years were under longtime Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno.

Welsh was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004. He was later inducted into the Virginia Hall of Fame in 2009.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB