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On this date in area sports history …
Thirteen years ago on this date, March 10, 1996, Joe Fincham was named the head football coach at Wittenberg. Complete story on the jump.
Published March 11, 1996
FINCHAM TO GUIDE WU GRID PROGRAM
By Ron Ware, News-Sun Sports Writer
Nearly two months after launching a national search for a football coach, Wittenberg officials apparently have found their man.
And, as it turns out, they didn’t have to look any farther than a few feet down the hallway.
Joe Fincham, the Tigers’ offensive line coach for six seasons, is expected to be introduced today as the successor to Doug Neibuhr, who resigned Jan. 4 to become head coach at his alma mater, Millikin University in Illinois.
Athletic director Carl Schraibman, who chaired the nine-member search committee, would confirm Sunday night only that a news conference regarding football is scheduled this afternoon.
But sources close to the search told the Springfield News-Sun that Fincham — one of two internal candidates — was offered the job late last week and has accepted.
Fincham, who did not return phone messages left for him at his Enon residence, has been Neibuhr’s top offensive assistant and a key recruiter since joining the Wittenberg staff in 1990, a year after Neibuhr’s arrival. The Tigers have won the North Coast Athletic Conference championship two of the past four years, including last season, when they went 10-0 in the regular season and made the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time since 1988.
The other finalists, according to numerous sources, were WU defensive coordinator Rick Willis, who also joined the staff in 1990; former Wittenberg player and assistant coach Don Horton, now offensive coordinator at Division I-AA Southern Illinois; and a pair of Division III head coaches, Frank Carr of NCAC member Earlham and Steve Mohr of Trinity University in San Antonio.
Although Fincham reportedly was not the unanimous choice of the search committee, he was the only person offered the post, sources said.
A native of Williamstown, W.Va., Fincham was a three-year starter as a defensive lineman at Ohio University and began his coaching career there in 1987 as a graduate assistant. After two years at the Mid-American Conference school, he spent one season as an assistant at Urbana University before coming to Wittenberg.
Neibuhr, who guided Wittenberg to a 51-18-1 record in his seven seasons, did not specifically recommend either Fincham or Willis for the post but had publicly endorsed both as highly qualified candidates.
Willis, who also is Wittenberg’s baseball coach, said Sunday that Schraibman had notified him that a choice had been made.
“I have heard from him,” Willis said, “but I’m not going to comment any further than that.”
Mohr told the News-Sun that he had been informed — via a message from Schraibman on his answering machine — that he was no longer in the running.
Mohr turned down the Wittenberg job in 1989 when Neibuhr was hired, and sources at both Wittenberg and Trinity indicated earlier in the search process that he might be the front runner.
“I thought I had a good interview, but I really didn’t have a feel for which way it would go,” he said.
Mohr confirmed that he probably would have had to take a pay cut if offered the job.
“Pay was an issue — no question,” he said. “But it never got to that point.”
Carr was out of town Sunday and did not return a message, and Horton could not be reached for comment.
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