Bob Reade (July 22, 1932 – July 5, 2020) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois from 1979 to 1994, compiling a record of 146–23–1. His Augustana Vikings won four consecutive NCAA Division III Football Championships from 1983 and 1986 and were runners-up in 1982. Reade's teams went unbeaten for 60 straight games (59 wins, one tie) between the start of the 1983 season and the second round of the 1987 NCAA Division III playoffs, when Augustana lost to Dayton, 38–36.[1] This remains the record for the longest unbeaten streak in NCAA Division III football history.[2] Reade's teams won or shared 12 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championships and he was named conference Coach of the Year nine times (1981, 1983–1987, 1990, 1993–1994). This award is now named in his honor. Reade was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1998.
Reade was the head football coach at J. D. Darnall High School in Geneseo, Illinois from 1962 to 1978, compiling a record of 146–21–4. Reade won three consecutive Illinois 3A state championships in 1976, 1977, and 1978. In 1979, Reade was hired at Augustana College, an NCAA Division III school in Rock Island, Illinois. He retired in 1994 with 146 wins and 11 playoff appearances at Augustana, in addition to 12 conference titles and 4 national championships.
Honors
Reade was a recipient of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998. Additionally, he was inducted into the Tribe of Vikings HOF, the Geneseo High School HOF, the Quad City Times HOF, and the Illinois Football Coaches Association HOF.
In 1993, Reade authored a booked titled Coaching Football Successfully (ISBN087322518X), for which Penn State's Joe Paterno wrote the foreword.
Death
Reade died on July 5, 2020.[3] He was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Geneseo, Illinois.
