Bill Meek William M . Meek ( 1922 – ) was an American football player and coach . He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University ( 1947 – 1950 ) , the University of Houston ( 1951 – 1954 ) , Southern Methodist University ( 1957 – 1961 ) , and the University of Utah ( 1968 – 1973 ) , compiling a career college football record of 78 – 88 – 7 . Early life . Meek was born in Waterbury , Connecticut and his family moved to Birmingham , Alabama in his youth . In college , he earned three letter s playing as a back - up quarterback for the University of Tennessee ; he graduated in 1943 . Coaching career . Meek had his first head coaching experience at age 22 , with the Fort Benning Doughboy football club in 1944 , while serving in the Army during World War II . Most of the starters on the team were members of the great Army teams of the early 1940s , and the team defeated all opponents except for a 0 – 7 loss to Auburn University . Marty Blake , later the NBA director of scouting , was one of the team managers . Following the war , Meek left the Army with the rank of captain . Meek served as an assistant football coach throughout the remainder of the 1940s . From 1947 to 1950 , he coached under Jim Tatum at the University of Maryland . During his tenure there , Meek was credited with the development of backs Ed Modzelewski and Bob Shemonski . In 1951 , Meek was offered the his first collegiate head coaching position at Kansas State with an initial salary of $ 8 , 000 . Meek was offered the job even though he told the hiring committee at K - State that the program was a huge mess . His first season he posted a 1 – 7 – 1 record , typical for Kansas State at the time . When he learned after the season that an ineligible player had participated , he self - reported the violation to the NCAA and the school voluntarily forfeited the win and the tie . The following season , the squad went 1 – 9 . Meek — who had already proven his integrity — accepted the services of several former Army players who resigned from the academy after violating the honor code in 1951 . In 1953 , Kansas State posted a 6 – 3 – 1 record , the first winning season at the school since Wes Fry ' s 1936 team . After starting that season 5 – 1 , K - State also received its first national ranking , at # 18 in the Coaches Poll on October 28 , 1953 . The following year was even better , with Kansas State posting a 7 – 3 record and playing for an Orange Bowl berth in their final game ( they went on to lose at Colorado ) . Meek left Kansas State following the 1954 season , when the school refused to give raises to his assistants . Kansas State wouldn ' t have another winning record for 16 years . In January 1955 , Meek took over as the head coach at the University of Houston . In two years at Houston , from 1955 to 1956 , Meek compiled a 13 – 6 – 1 record . In his second season , Meek led the Cougars to the Missouri Valley Conference championship and was named the Missouri Valley Coach of the Year . In 1957 , Meek took the job as head coach of the SMU Mustangs . During his tenure , from 1957 to 1961 , he compiled a 17 – 29 – 4 record , while coaching All - American quarterback Don Meredith . By far his worst season at SMU was 1960 , when his team went 0 – 9 – 1 , with the only game decided by less than 10 points being a 0 – 0 tie with Texas A & M . From 1962 to 1967 , Meek worked as an assistant coach , including stints as Director of Pro Personnel for the Denver Broncos and as a scout for the Dallas Cowboys . Meek was offensive coordinator for Army during the 1966 and 1967 seasons . In 1968 , he took his final coaching job , as head coach for the University of Utah . Meek guided the team to a 33 – 31 record between 1968 and 1973 , and his 1969 Utes squad posted an 8 – 2 record . Head coaching record . < / div >