The Official Athletic Site of Miles College

The 2009 football season will mark Billy Joe's second season at the helm of the Golden Bears and his 33^rd season as a head coach. Coach Joe's first season with Miles proved to be one of his low points as he compiled a 2-8 overall record and 2-7 SIAC record. Joe enters the 2009 season as the winningest active coach in HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) football. He has a career record of 239-116-4 (.665) in 32 years as a collegiate head coach. Joe's 239 victories place him fourth on the Football Championship Subdivision's all-time winningest coach's ranks, while positioning him second only to the legendary Eddie Robinson in black college football wins.

Joe coached 11 seasons at Florida A&M University, while making his tenure in Tallahassee, Florida the third longest in Florida A&M football history, trailing A.S. Gaither (25 years) and Rudy Hubbard (12 years). He was just the second Florida A&M coach, other than Gaither to produce nine straight winning seasons in his first nine years as head coach (1994-2002), as well as the second to not have a losing season in his first 10 seasons (1994-2003).

 

Joe's (86) wins moved him past Hubbard (83) and into second place in coaching wins at Florida A&M, trailing only Jake Gaither 203 wins.

 

At present, Joe stands second all-time on the career wins list at HBCU's, trailing only Grambling's legendary Eddie Robinson, who leads the Black College coaches in wins with 408.

 

Coach Joe is a native of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he starred as a student-athlete in football and track & field at South Scott Senior High School. Billy Joe earned his B.A. in Economics from Villanova University (1963); B.A. in History from Cheyney (Pa) State University (1970) and M.A. in Secondary Education from Antioch (Ohio) College (1974). Joe played fullback and starred in track & field at Villanova. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the American Football League (1963), and played professionally with Buffalo (1965), Miami (1966-67) and New York Jets (1968-69).

 

Billy Joe began his coaching career with a two-year stint (1970-71) as an assistant coach at the University of Maryland. From there, he returned to Pennsylvania for a seven-year run as head coach at Cheyney (Pa) State University (1972-78). From Cheyney, Joe moved to Philadelphia, where he was the assistant running back coach for the Philadelphia Eagles (1979-80), as well as a Super Bowl run under Dick Vermeil. After two seasons in Philadelphia, Billy Joe would leave for Wilberforce, Ohio, where he would spend the next 13 seasons at Central State University. At Central State he led the Marauders to 120 wins to becoming the scourge of Black College Football.

 

While, at Central State University his teams won two NAIA National Championships (1990, 1992), runner-up two other times and captured five consecutive Sheridan Broadcasting Network Black College National Titles from 1986 through 1990.

 

Coach Joe left Central State after the 1993 season to become head coach at Florida A&M University. Over his 11 seasons (1994-2004), Joe led Florida A&M University to five Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles, three league runner-up titles and eight straight trips to postseason play (1995-2001). While at Florida A&M, his teams enjoyed eight straight seasons of being ranked in Division 1-AA Top-25 polls (1995-2002) and ranked in every preseason Division 1-AA poll for eight years (1996-2003) running.

 

Joe's Florida A&M clubs fashioned a 47-13 record in MEAC play from 1994 to 2002, the league's best record over that span. But, his best seasons came the two years when his teams did not win the league title. Joe's 1998 club led NCAA Division 1-AA in scoring, passing and total offense en route to an 11-2 record and a second round playoff berth. His 1999 team pulled off two stunning road playoff upsets of higher ranked teams (Appalachian State and Troy State) before falling to Youngstown State, to finish the season with a 10-4 record.

 

Coach Joe was enshrined in 2007 into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame, Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame and the MEAC Hall of Fame. He is a three-time MEAC Coach of the Year honoree (1995, 1996, 2001) and has been honored for his coaching success by the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., as their National Coach of the Year 12 times, including 10 consecutive years (1983-1992), the 100 Percent Wrong Club of Atlanta, Georgia as National Coach of the Year honors five consecutive times (1988-1992) and the Sheridan Broadcasting Network among others. But, perhaps his greatest individual honor came in 1995, when elected President of the American Football Coaches' Association. He was MVP of the 1962 Sun Bowl and 1963 Liberty Bowl at Villanova. Also won All-American honors in track (discus, shot put) and won a Silver Medal in shot put at 1963 Pan American Games in San Paulo, Brazil. He was named AFL Rookie of the Year with Denver in 1963, a member of New York Jets' Super Bowl winning team (1969) and Pennsylvania State Conference Coach of the Year (1978).

 

Joe is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Alpha Phi Sigma National Honor Society, for his academic work at Cheyney State University. He is an active member of the American Football Coaches' Association.

 

Billy Joe is married to the former Debra Lynn Depp and they are the parents of three children Candace Lynn, Richard Earl Porter and William Hammi Joe.

 

 

 

Billy Joe comes into the 2008 campaign as the winningest active coach among Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the fourth winningest coach in total victories in Division One, behind Bobby Bowden (Florida State), Joe Paterno (Penn State) and Lou Holtz (South Carolina).

 

Joe Paterno – Penn State (43 yrs) 1966 – present 383 .750

Bobby Bowden – Florida State (43 yrs) 1959 – present 382 .754