List of Samford Bulldogs head football coaches

The Samford Bulldogs college football team represents Samford University^{[A 1]} as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). The Bulldogs competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The program has had 37 head coaches, and one interim head coach since it began play during the 1902 season. Since December 2025, John Grass has served as head coach at Samford.^[1]

Five coaches have led Samford to the postseason: Bobby Bowden, Wayne Grubb, Terry Bowden, Pat Sullivan, and Hatcher. Four of those coaches also won conference championships: Eddie McLane captured one and Billy Bancroft two, as a member of the Dixie Conference; Sullivan and Hatcher each captured one as a member of Southern Conference.

Hatcher is the leader in seasons coached, with 10 years as head coach and games coached (100) and won (57). Bobby Bowden has the highest winning percentage at 0.838. Maxwell James and Bub Walker have the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with 0.000. Of the 36 different head coaches who have led the Bulldogs, Bobby Bowden and Sullivan have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key to symbols in coaches list
General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 2]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 3]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 4]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 5]}

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards^{[A 6]}
No.	Name	Season(s) ^{[A 7]}	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	CC	Awards
1	Houston Gwin	1902–1903	7	4	3	0	0.571	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	Walter T. O'Hara	1903	2	1	1	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	Davis F. Stakely	1905	4	1	2	1	0.375	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4	John Counselman ^{[A 8]}	1906–1908	20	9	10	1	0.475	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5	William A. Blount	1908	4	2	2	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6	John B. Longwell	1909 1911 1916–1917	31	14	14	3	0.500	3	11	2	0.250	—	—	—	0	—
7	James C. Donnelly	1910	9	1	8	0	0.111	0	5	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
8	B. L. Noojin	1912–1914	25	10	13	2	0.440	0	4	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
9	Eugene Caton	1915	8	3	4	1	0.438	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
10	C. W. Streit ^{[A 9]}	1917	2	1	1	0	0.500	0	0	0	–	—	—	—	0	—
11	Maxwell James	1918	2	0	2	0	.000	0	1	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
12	Chester C. Dillon	1919 1927–1928	32	16	11	5	0.578	5	8	2	0.400	—	—	—	0	—
13	Robert C. Marshall	1920–1921	18	6	11	1	0.361	3	7	0	0.300	—	—	—	0	—
14	Harris G. Cope	1922–1923	20	5	10	5	0.375	1	5	1	0.214	—	—	—	0	—
15	Jenks Gillem	1924–1926	27	13	12	2	0.519	7	8	1	0.469	—	—	—	0	—
16	Eddie McLane	1929–1933	53	28	19	6	0.585	16	11	4	0.581	—	—	—	1	—
17	Clyde Propst	1934	9	3	4	2	0.444	2	2	1	0.500	—	—	—	0	—
18	Billy Bancroft	1935–1939	44	22	18	4	0.545	15	6	3	0.688	—	—	—	2	—
19	William C. White	1940–1941 1954	28	10	17	1	0.375	6	1	1	0.813	—	—	—	0	—
20	Euil Snider	1943	4	2	2	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
21	Bub Walker	1944–1945	10	0	10	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
22	Ted McCrary	1948	8	4	4	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
23	Earl Gartman	1949–1953	43	14	28	1	0.337	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
24	Howard Foote	1955–1956	18	3	13	2	0.222	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
25	Virgil Ledbetter	1957–1958	17	6	10	1	0.382	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
26	Bobby Bowden^†	1959–1962	37	31	6	0	0.838	—	—	—	—	1	1	0	—	—
27	Bubba Scott	1963–1965	28	13	13	2	0.500	—	—	—	—	0	0	0	—	—
28	John Lee Armstrong	1966–1968	31	20	9	2	0.677	—	—	—	—	0	0	0	—	—
29	Wayne Grubb	1969–1973	48	25	20	3	0.552	—	—	—	—	1	0	0	—	—
30	Kim Alsop	1984–1986	27	6	21	0	0.222	—	—	—	—	0	0	0	—	—
31	Terry Bowden	1987–1992	69	45	23	1	0.659	—	—	—	—	1	2	0	—	—
32	Chan Gailey	1993	11	5	6	0	0.455	—	—	—	—	0	0	0	—	—
33	Pete Hurt	1994–2001	82	42	39	1	0.518	—	—	—	—	0	0	0	—	—
34	Bill Gray	2001–2006	60	27	33	—	0.450	31	32	—	0.492	0	0	0	0	OVC Coach of the Year (2003)
35	Pat Sullivan^†	2007–2014	90	47	43	—	0.522	31	32	—	0.492	0	1	0	1	SoCon Co-Coach of the Year (2012)
36	Chris Hatcher	2015–2025	121	62	59	—	0.512	47	40	—	0.540	1	3	0	1	—
Int	Scot Sloan ^{[A 10]}	2025	2	0	2	—	.000	0	2	—	.000	0	0	—	0	—
37	John Grass	2026–present	0	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	–	0	0	0	0	—

v t e Samford Bulldogs football
Venues	West End Park (1902–1903, 1905–1910) Alabama State Fairgrounds (1902, 1906, 1910–1912) Howard Athletic Field (1912–1917) Eagles/Berry Field (1919–1927, 1950–1956) Rickwood Field (1917–1927) Legion Field (1927–1944, 1950, 1955, 1990) Hewitt H.S. Stadium (1950, 1952) Shades Valley H.S. Stadium (1952–1958) Pete Hanna Stadium (1958–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Jacksonville State
Culture & lore	Marching band Porter Cup
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946–1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974–1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

List of Samford Bulldogs head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

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