Colorado’s Western Slope might be considered off the beaten path and outside the main focus for high school and collegiate sports, but Bill Noxon made it a mainstream for one of the best coaching records compiled in the state.
Noxon applied his successful coaching methods to the football teams at Fruita Monument and Grand Junction high schools and at Western State College in Gunnison. Along the way, Fruita Monument won a Class 2A state football championship; Western State won eight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference football titles, including seven in a row, and a 21-17 victory over Central Arkansas in the 1978 quarterfinals of the NAIA national playoffs. Noxon compiled a combined coaching record of 217-98-6 in 33 seasons, including an 87-44-2 mark at Western State.
Noxon fits the description of being a diamond in the rough.
“The Grand Junction area and Gunnison are kind of isolated between Salt Lake City and Denver,” Noxon said. “Our local media did a lot of good things for our programs. It was like being a big fish in a small ocean. It was a lot of fun.”
Noxon found his way to the Western Slope in 1952 by chance. He had grown up on Denver’s north side and had gone first to Fort Lewis College in Durango before transferring to Colorado A&M, now Colorado State University, for his last two years. When Noxon graduated from A&M, the head football coaching job was open at Fruita Monument High School. Helped by an introduction from stepbrother Bus Bergman, already a fixture in coaching in Grand Junction, Noxon got the job.
Noxon quickly put together a record that ranked among the elite coaches in the state. When he reached 100 victories, Noxon joined a small group of Colorado high school football coaches who had reached the 100-win mark, including Pat Panek of Denver East; Lloyd Gaskill, Limon; Tom Hancock, Lakewood; Fred Tesone, Cherry Creek; and Frank Rino, Mullen and Alameda.
The state championship was a bonus. It meant Fruita Monument finally took the last step, and the victory came on Noxon’s 36th birthday, Nov. 26, 1966.
“We were state runners-up five times before we won it,” Noxon said. “I thought we always were going to be the bridesmaid and never the bride.”
After he spent 15 seasons at Fruita Monument, the news of his decision to become the football coach at Grand Junction High spread as if through a small town. “I hated to do it, but Grand Junction was Triple-A and it was a better brand of football,” Noxon said. “We weren’t in the same league, but we did play each other my last year at Grand Junction.”
After four seasons at Grand Junction, Noxon moved to Western State in 1971.
When Noxon went to Gunnison, the Western Slope was beginning to boom. The oil shale potential was in full swing. Charlie Thompson, a standout quarterback from Boulder, remembers the years as the Mountaineers stretched their string of RMAC championships to seven in a row.
“There was a lot of excitement in the area and the school was packed,” Thompson remembered. “Even the players had a hard time finding housing. It was a real exciting time and everyone knew who we were.”
Thompson first learned of Noxon’s coaching prowess as an opponent at Southern Colorado in Pueblo.
“We played Western State when I was a freshman,” Thompson said. “They ran the Houston veer and they ran up and down the field on us. I was so impressed with their offense that I told myself I had to go there to play.”
Thompson remembered practicing in Gunnison for a game against Central Arkansas with the temperature at 40 degrees below zero. The next day the Mountaineers were in 60-degree temperatures in Little Rock, Ark.
Noxon’s record at Western State stands as the best in the school’s history, but he prefers to credit his peers.
“Any success you have depends on a lot of other people,” Noxon said. “There were a lot of high points. I really enjoyed my years in coaching.”
Instead of reminiscing with statistics, Noxon fills his mind with names. There’s Tracy Borah, Paul Coleman, Duke Iverson, Ollie Woods and Kay Dalton at Western State. Carl Cox, Mickey Dunn and Bill Fanning from Grand Junction and Jack Pollack from Fruita – his coaching peers. He played for Bergman at Fort Lewis and Bob Davis at A&M. Some of his teammates in Fort Collins were Jim David and Jack Christiansen. His players are within a reunion call. Thompson and Bill Campbell were among the standouts. Steve Phillips of Western State; Casey Coons, Arvada West; Andy Lowry, Columbine; and Mike Sirko, Doherty of Colorado Springs, went into coaching. The list goes on and on.
At 76, Noxon’s pastime is golf. He divides his time between Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Fruita-Grand Junction area. But he’s never too busy to talk about his peers and players who helped him become a legend in the “isolated” area between Denver and Salt Lake City.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
