Ithaca Head Coach Mike Welch Honored by All-American Football Foundation
December 6, 2007
From Ithaca College Sports Information Release
Ithaca College football coach Mike Welch will be honored by the All-American Football Foundation as one of the organization’s winners of the Johnny Vaught Head Coach award. Welch will be honored at the AAFF’s 88th Banquet of Champions, held Dec. 6 in Newton, Mass.
Welch, Colgate’s Dick Biddle and Don Brown of Massachusetts will receive the Foundation’s Johnny Vaught Head Coach award.
He is one of two Ithaca graduates being honored; Jon Meterparel, a 1994 Ithaca graduate, is receiving the AAFF's Lindsey Nelson Outstanding Sportscaster Award for his work with Boston College football.
He recently completed his 14th season as head coach at his alma mater. A 1972 graduate of Ithaca, Welch has served as the Bombers’ head coach since 1994, posting a record of 112-41 (.735) with five trips to the NCAA playoffs. A running back who earned two letters while playing for coach Jim Butterfield, Welch succeeded his former coach after spending 10 years as an assistant at his alma mater.
He has led the Bombers to postseason play in nine of his 14 seasons, including an appearance in the 1994 NCAA semifinals and trips to the 2001 and 2003 NCAA quarterfinals. Welch was named College Sports magazine Coach of the Year in 1994 when his 10 wins were the most by any first-year coach in college football. He was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year in 2003 and has led Ithaca to four Empire 8 titles. Welch is in his second year as a Division III representative on the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Board of Trustees.
The Bombers posted a record of 8-3 in 2007 and were selected for the NCAA playoffs for the 16th time. The program’s streak of 36 straight winning seasons is the second-longest streak at any level of college football.