Joe Glenn was an option quarterback who executed the Bob Devaney offense under head coach Vince Aldrich at Pius X and brought excitement to the Thunderbolts’ offense. Joe led the Pius X football team to a 7-0-2 season in Class A. The Thunderbolts finished the 1966 season as the only undefeated team in Class A football in the state of Nebraska and were Lincoln City Champions as well as the runner up in Class A football. Joe earned local and state recognition in football his senior year. After high school, he attended the University of South Dakota where he played quarterback and wide receiver. Joe went on to coach football for 42 years, 28 as head coach. He coached three teams that won National Championships and became one of only 76 coaches in NCAA history to win 200 games.
Glenn’s first head coaching job was at Doane in Crete, Nebraska, where he became the youngest head college football coach at the age of 27. He then served as head football coach at the University of Northern Colorado (1989-1999), the University of Montana (2000-2002), the University of Wyoming (2003-2008), and finished his coaching career at the University of South Dakota (2012-2015), where he was voted into the University of South Dakota Hall of Fame. He won two NCAA Division II National Football Championships at Northern Colorado in 1996 and 1997, and an NCAA Division I-AA National Football Championship at the University of Montana in 2001. In 2000, while at the University of Montana, Joe received the prestigious Eddie Robinson Award and in 2018, Joe was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Glenn was twice named the American Football Coaches Association’s National Coach of the Year.
Glenn has been married to his wife Michele for 51 years. The couple has two children, a daughter Erin and a son Casey. They have four grandchildren: Henry and Maeve in Lincoln, and Regan and Donovan in Idaho.
