Staff Report
Bill Weeks, one of the most successful football coaches in UNM history, passed away Tuesday night at an Albuquerque hospital. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Weeks coached at UNM from 1956-67. He was an assistant coach from 1956-59. He took over for Marv Levy in 1960 and went 5-5 in his first season as head coach. However, Weeks would go on to win three conference championships - more than any other coach in UNM football history - in three consecutive seasons from 1962-64.
In 1961, Weeks led the Lobos to a 7-4 record and a postseason victory against Western Michigan in the Aviation Bowl.
Weeks' overall record as head coach of UNM was 40-41-1. The 40 wins are the second most by any head coach in UNM football history. Only current head coach Rocky Long has more, with 46. In the 1964 season, he led the Lobos to a 9-4 overall record, the best record of his tenure. Weeks was inducted into the UNM Athletic Hall of Honor in 2005.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Weeks was also a standout athlete before his years as a coach. He graduated in 1947 from Hampton High School in Iowa where he was an all-state halfback as a senior. He then went on to play for Iowa State, where he was the starting quarterback from 1948-50. He was third in the nation in total offense in 1950 and named All-Big Seven Conference in his junior and senior seasons.
Weeks was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1951, but he suffered an Achilles tendon injury in a car accident. Weeks graduated from Iowa State in 1951 with a master's degree in psychology. He was born Oct. 20, 1929.
