Dick Offenhamer

Who is Dick Offenhamer?

Richard W. "Dick" Offenhamer was an American football and baseball player and later a successful coach. He starred in football as a halfback and in baseball as a catcher at both Bennett High School and at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

At Colgate, he started at right halfback on the 1934 football team which lost only to Ohio State; and again on the successful 1935 team. He also played baseball, hitting .380 as a senior where he was both a catcher and an outfielder. He was also intramural light heavyweight boxing champion all four years.

After graduating from Colgate in 1936, he was an English teacher and the head football coach at Kenmore High School. From 1936 through 1946, his Kenmore teams compiling an outstanding record of 50-7 capturing Niagara Frontier League Championships in 1943, 1944 and 1945. From 1946 until 1955, he was the head coach of the freshmen football team at Colgate.

In 1955, Offenhamer was recruited by University of Buffalo President Dr. Clifford C. Furnas to revive the school’s football team. He served as the head football coach at the University of Buffalo from 1955 to 1965, compiling a record of 58-37-5.

His 1958 Buffalo Bulls football team won the Lambert Cup, making U.B. the top-rated small school in the East. Offenhamer was named by United Press International as "Coach of the Week" after the Bulls upset highly regarded Columbia University 34-14 on October 25, 1958.