During his 13-year tenure at RPI, Head Football Coach Joe King has been known for coaching winning teams. King has achieved a 85-36-2 record equating to a .691 winning percentage, which is the highest winning percentage in school history. King and his staff have been named Coach Staff of the Year by the ECAC and UCAA four times. He has won four ECAC and four UCAA regular-season conference championships and recently guided the Engineers to their second perfect season in three years and second NCAA appearance in school history. “I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had some great players and some great coaches ... I give a lot of credit to assistant coaches we’ve had over the years” said King.
Since King took over as head football coach in 1989, he has broken or tied more than 90 school records and has instructed more than 30 pre-season All-Americans, 14 post-season All-Americans, five First-team Academic All-Americans, and numerous all-conference and all-region honorees. Two thirds of the members of this year’s team made the dean’s list, five earned 4.0 QPAs, and the overall cumulative QPA is over 2.9. “It’s such a quality school. You get such a great education here ... You have [students] graduate and do great things ... That’s very gratifying,” said King.
Before he came to Rensselaer, the football program had not done very well and was often featured on sports highlight shows for bad play. “[Coaching was] a challenge, especially here, since they hadn’t done much winning. We’ve turned that around. We’re doing something that people didn’t think we could do,” said King.
King’s coaching career began in 1971 at St. Peter’s High School in Saratoga Springs, NY. In only his first season as head football coach at St. Peter’s, King completely turned around a football program that had not notched a single win in the five seasons prior, and he successfully led the team to an 7-1 record and to ninth place in the New York State high school football rankings. King left St. Peter’s for Watervliet High School in 1973, where he compiled a 44-16-1 career mark in seven seasons, at a school that hadn’t had a winning season since the 1950s. King also led the Cannoneers to the Section II Class C championship title in 1979. The Troy Record named him Capitaland High School Coach of the Year four times while he was at Watervliet.
In 1980 King joined RPI as a part time coach. He left in 1981 to become a part-time assistant coach at University at Albany before returning to Rensselaer to coach full time. Between 1981 and 1989, King spent five seasons as an assistant football coach and three as an associate head football coach. He was named head football coach in 1989.
King graduated from Siena College in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He played for both the baseball team as a first baseman and the football team as a nose tackle during his time at Siena. King and his wife Gail have two sons, Joey and Kevin, and reside in Saratoga Springs, NY. In his spare time, King enjoys playing tennis and fishing.
