Bill Lewis
Biographical sketch of head football coach Bill Lewis. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Bill Lewis: ECU's ticket to football success," ECU Report, Summer 1989, Volume 20, No. 4.
Bill Lewis has barely had time to catch his breath since early December, when he was named ECU's new head football coach. With national signing day looming only two months away, the former defensive coordinator and secondary coach at the University of Georgia hit the ground running with recruiting as his first priority.
Hiring a staff and getting them on the road took precious time, as did Christmas and New Year's breaks. "When high schools close for Christmas holidays, there's a slowdown out there," Lewis says."We really only had about a month to recruit."
Despite the short amount of time, Lewis and his staff signed 25 impressive athletes, including several "upsets" who were also recruited by such perennial powers as Penn State, Michigan, Georgia, Clemson, South Carolina and LSU. Lewis' efforts to establish a base in North Carolina resulted in 12 recruits, including three from Greenville's Rose High School.
Surprisingly, one of Lewis' biggest selling points was ECU's much maligned schedule. "Young people want to play against good competition," Lewis says. "Athletes should enjoy competition or they're in the wrong field."
All but one of the signees qualified academically under NCAA rules, satisfying another of Lewis' goals. He is confident the one exception can bring his SAT score up in time to play this fall.
"We wanted to sign people who were truly student athletes," Lewis says. "I believe very strongly that you can be successful in competitive athletics within the framework of a university, and that is to have excellence in academics. The two coexist on campus."
Keeping -- not hiring -- a staff proved to be a challenge for Lewis, who lost four of his nine assistant coaches before spring practice began to Miami, Georgia, Pittsburgh and UNC.
"It's a compliment to the quality people that we had when you look at the programs they went to," Lewis says. "In each case we emerged stronger because we were able to bring in outstanding people to replace them.Our staff is one of our strong points."
Another strong point was the hard-working attitude displayed by players and staff alike during spring drills. "That was by far the biggest plus we had," Lewis says. "We spent a lot of time working on positive attitudes, establishing good work habits, raising our standards to a higher level and learning the basic concepts of our offense, defense and kicking game."
Travis Hunter emerged as the No. 1 quarterback, Lewis says, but was quick to point out that the senior would not be allowed to rest on his laurels with athletes like Jeff Blake, Charlie Libretto and Chad Green waiting in the wings.
"Our offensive line of scrimmage was the most consistent part of our offense and probably the whole team," Lewis says. "We had a good percentage of returning players there, and Steve Shankweiler remained as their coach. They were able to accomplish a lot from start to finish."
The defensive line of scrimmage, however, is severely lacking in depth, size and strength. "That is an area that concerned the staff from the very first day," Lewis says."The players are going to have to work hard in the strength program this summer."
While the players are working on their speed and conditioning, Lewis and his staff will be analyzing statistics from spring practice and beginning an intensive study of their first five opponents -- Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Illinois State, Louisiana Tech and South Carolina.
According to Lewis, each team will be given the same amount of respect. "Every team worries you," he says. "But the worst thing a coach can do is let one team worry him more than another.There's never any consistency if you prepare for and treat opponents differently.
"I don't see a team on the schedule that is not capable of being successful against us," he adds. "At the same time, I don't see a team that we cannot be competitive with. That will be our approach, to be competitive against every one of the teams we play."
Success will come, Lewis believes, when every coach and player on the team learns how to extend his talents to what he calls the outer limits. "I want them to do the best job they are capable of doing with the talents they have," he says."The wins and losses will take care of themselves if the team is as good as it can be."
Success was something Lewis enjoyed at the University of Georgia. During his nine-year tenure the Bulldogs won 82 games, lost 21, tied four and played in nine consecutive post-season bowl games."I was very fortunate to be part of an outstanding university and athletic program during the most successful nine-year period in its history," Lewis says. "It was very hard to leave."
Lewis was born and raised in Pennsylvania, where he quarterbacked his high school football team for three years.Equally interested in baseball, he presided over the pitcher's mound for three years in high school and four years at East Stroudsburg State College.
Although he denies having any real talent at the sport, Lewis almost signed a contract out of high school with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and played for the Detroit Tigers minor league team in 1963 and 1964 after earning a B.S. degree in health and physical education.
"I favor coaching football because I've done it," Lewis says. "But I could very possibly have pursued a career in coaching baseball.I am a tremendous fan of baseball."
Lewis also played football at East Stroudsburg State College, where he was named a Little All-America selection at quarterback.Lewis switched to football during off-seasons with the Detroit Tigers to serve as a part-time assistant coach at his alma mater.
Lewis quit the Tigers in 1964 when he was offered the head football coaching position at East Stroudsburg. "They gave me a chance to be head coach at age 22 because the former coach experienced some unexpected health problems and was forced to resign," he says. "I gave up baseball in 1965 for an opportunity to move into what we now know as division 1-A football. That really excited me."
Lewis spent the next three football seasons at the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant under Head Coach David Hart, the father of ECU Athletic Director Dave Hart Jr.
In 1969 Lewis moved his family to Winston-Salem for an assistant coaching position at Wake Forest University. The Deacons won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1970, Lewis' second and last season with the team.
Two seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech were followed by four at the University of Arkansas. In 1976, Lewis was named head coach at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. After three losing seasons -- 4-6-1 in 1977, 5-7 in 1978 and 4-8 in 1979 -- Lewis accepted a position at Georgia as secondary coach under Vince Dooley.
We ran out of time at Wyoming," Lewis says."We were headed in the right direction but never got the job completely finished. I regret that I wasn't able to do the kind of job that I had hoped to do. That's why I'm excited about having an opportunity to try it again.
"I also think that in the nine years since then I have become a better coach," he adds."I'm more prepared to handle this situation because I am intelligent enough to have learned from the mistakes I made."
Lewis knows that building a successful program at ECU will not be easy."This is not going to just happen because we want it to happen," he says. "This is something that we're going to have to work awfully hard to make happen.
"I sense among our players a tremendous excitement; they are really hungry to be successful," he adds."I really believe there is an opportunity for this program to be successful because the administration is willing to provide the tools necessary to make those successes possible."
