Joe Walton, a former coach with the Giants and Jets who was also the architect of Robert Morris’ football program, passed away on Sunday. He was 85.
While known for his coaching later in his career, Walton, a Pittsburgh native, was a standout player at both Beaver Falls High School and the University of Pittsburgh, where he was named an All-American twice.
Walton then played tight end for both Washington and the New York Giants between 1957 and 1964, spending his final four NFL years with Big Blue. He then immediately began his coaching career as a Giants scout in 1965, and served in that role from 1965-68 before becoming the wide receivers coach from 1969-73.
He went on to spend seven seasons as an assistant in Washington, including three as Joe Theismann's offensive coordinator.
In 1981, Walton returned to New York as the Jets' offensive coordinator, and after two seasons in that role, he was named head coach in 1983 and was 53-57-1 with two playoff appearances over seven seasons.
Walton then became the Steelers offensive coordinator in 1990 and 1991, Chuck Noll's final two seasons, and went on to add to his legend by becoming the architect of the football program at Robert Morris University.
Becoming Robert Morris’ first-ever head coach in program history in 1993, Walton took “64 freshmen at a school that never had football in its 73 years of existence and posted a 7-1-1 (.833) record, 13 months after being named RMU's first head coach,” the university said in a release.
Walton built the Colonials program from the ground up, hiring assistant coaches, recruiting players and even buying football equipment, and led the Colonials to six NEC championships between 1994-2013, going 115-92-1 in that span and earning four NEC Coach of the Year Awards.
In 2005, RMU opened Joe Walton Stadium, winning their first game at the field with a 49-13 win over Butler.
"Patriarch, architect, mentor, friend: those are just some of the terms that come to mind when I think of Coach Joe Walton,” said Voice of the Colonials Chris Shovlin. “He didn't just build a football program from scratch. He changed the lives of everyone who came in contact with him, molding players into men of character and positively impacting the entire RMU community. In our last conversation just a few months ago, I told him, just like I tell everyone, Joe Walton made me a better play-by-play announcer, and being around him all these years made me a better person."
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