Robert Goin (October 3, 1936 – October 12, 2019) was an American football and baseball coach and college athletic administrator. He served as the head football coach at Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia from 1963 to 1972, compiling a record of 45–32–2. He was also the school's head baseball coach and athletic director. Goin served as the athletic director at California University of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1981, Florida State University from 1990 to 1994, and the University of Cincinnati from 1997 to 2005
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Biographical details | |
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Born | (1936-10-03)October 3, 1936 Gary Indiana |
Died | October 12, 2019(2019-10-12) (aged 83) Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida |
Playing career | |
Football | |
c. 1958 | Bethany (WV) |
Basketball | |
c. 1958 | Bethany (WV) |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
Football | |
1960–1962 | Bethany (WV) (assistant) |
1963–1972 | Bethany (WV) |
Baseball | |
? | Bethany (WV) |
Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
1970–1976 | Bethany (WV) |
1976–1979 | West Virginia (assistant AD) |
1979–1981 | California (PA) |
1981–1989 | Florida State (associate AD) |
1990–1994 | Florida State |
1997–2005 | Cincinnati |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 45–32–2 (football) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
Football 2 PAC (1965–1966) | |
Goin was a 1959 graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. Goin married his high-school sweetheart Nancy in 1957.
Goin returned to Bethany in 1960 as an assistant football coach.
Goin servined as athletic director and chair of the physical education department at Bethany from 1970 to 1976, and as a tenured professor. From 1976 to 1979, Goin served as assistant athletics director at West Virginia University, and spent two years, from 1979 to 1981, as athletic director at California University of Pennsylvania.[1]
Goin served five years, from 1990 to 1994, as the athletic director at Florida State, guiding the Seminoles into membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). During his tenure, Goin also oversaw an $80 Million expansion of all FSU athletic facilities. Within this project, Goin helped start the Doak Campbell Stadium expansion that boosted seating by nearly 20,000 and added classrooms to the buildings wrapped around the stadium. Goin later resigned his position at Florida State after being accused by a weekly newspaper in Tallahassee of using a contractor involved in the school's stadium expansion to install a new roof over his home. But an investigation by the Florida Times-Union newspaper revealed that Goin paid more than market price for the roof, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Florida Ethics Commission. [2] [3]
During his tenure at Cincinnati, which began in 1995, the school joined the Big East Conference and developed the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village, a comprehensive $80.3 million athletic facilities enhancement. Cincinnati's sports teams posted a combined winning percentage of nearly .600 in the past eight years, claiming 29 conference titles, making 49 postseason appearances and producing 39 All-Americans under his leadership. Also, Cincinnati's football team made their first postseason bowl appearance in 47 years. Goin placed a strong focus on developing UC student-athletes' academic abilities during his tenure. He improved the academic support services they received and started programs that allowed student-athletes who exhausted their athletic eligibility to return to school in order to earn their degree. Nationally, the most notable event during his Cincinnati tenure was the dismissal of basketball coach Bob Huggins. Goin retired from the AD role at UC in 2005 to move closer to his four children and six grandchildren that resided in the Florida. To this day the Football Team Meeting Room in the Lindner Center is named after Goin.
Goin served on the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and the NCAA Football Bowl Certification Subcommittee.
Goin was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and the University of Cincinnati athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He was also a member of the Penn Hills High School and Bethany College Halls of Fame and was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the Phi Kappa Tau Hall of Fame in 2006.
Goin died after a heart attack on October 12, 2019, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.[4][5]
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
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Bethany Bison (Presidents' Athletic Conference) (1963–1972) | |||||||||
1963 | Bethany | 2–5 | 2–5 | T–6th | |||||
1964 | Bethany | 5–3 | 4–2 | 2nd | |||||
1965 | Bethany | 5–3 | 5–1 | 1st | |||||
1966 | Bethany | 6–0–1 | 5–0–1 | 1st | |||||
1967 | Bethany | 5–3 | 4–2 | 2nd | |||||
1968 | Bethany | 4–4 | 4–2 | T–2nd | |||||
1969 | Bethany | 6–2 | 4–2 | T–2nd | |||||
1970 | Bethany | 5–2 | 3–2 | 2nd | |||||
1971 | Bethany | 3–5–1 | 2–3 | T–4th | |||||
1972 | Bethany | 4–5 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
Bethany: | 45–32–2 | 36–25–1 | |||||||
Total: | 45–32–2 | ||||||||
National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth |
Bethany Bison head football coaches | |
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Florida State Seminoles athletic directors | |
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# denotes interim athletic director |
Cincinnati Bearcats athletic directors | |
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# denotes interim athletic director |