Mel Tjeerdsma
Mel Tjeerdsma (born 1947) is a football coach of
Northwest Missouri State University in
Maryville, Missouri who has led the team to three NCAA Division II national championship games (and winning two).
Tjeerdsma (pronounced ‘church-mah') was born and grew up on a farm in
Springfield, South Dakota.
He graduated from Springfield High School in 1964 and attended
Southern State College in Springfield where he participated in several sports. He earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from the college in 1967.
He coached at
Denison, Iowa High School, where he guided his team to a 9-0 record in 1975 and a berth in the state playoffs. He earned Northwest Iowa Football Coach of the Year honors in 1972 and was the Northwest Iowa Track and Field Coach of the Year in 1973, 1974 and 1975.
He received his master's degree in physical education at Northwest Missouri State in 1977.
Tjeerdsma was the offensive coordinator at
Northwestern College in
Orange City, Iowa for eight years. He was also the head track and field coach at Northwestern. The Red Raiders earned four trips to the NAIA Division II Playoffs while Tjeerdsma was there, including a national championship in 1983. His offense twice led the nation in total offense and scoring.
His track and field teams won three Tri-State Conference titles and five consecutive NAIA District 15 indoor championships.
Tjeerdsma was the head coach at
Austin College in
Sherman, Texas from 1984 through 1993. He compiled a 60-38-4 record and was the school's winningest coach. Tjeerdsma guided Austin College to three Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships and made two trips to the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II Playoffs.
Northwest Missouri State University prior to his arrival in 1994 was experiencing a series of problems. Missouri under Governor
John Ashcroft had announced plans to close the school. The state had also balked at converting
U.S. Route 71 to Maryville to a four-lane highway -- even as it had converted the rest of the highway south of St. Joseph, Missouri to interstate standards.
The Bearcats went 0-11 in Tjeerdsma's first year.
In 1996 they made the playoffs for the first time in the school's history. In 1998 the Bearcats won the
NCAA Division II national football championship by going 15-0 -- the first time a Division II school had gone undefeated in the competition history and the first time a Northwest school won a national championship in any sport.
In 1999 Northwest defeated
Carson-Newman College 58-52 in four overtimes to defend the title. The game was the longest in terms of the number of extra periods in NCAA football playoff history, surpassing six contests that were extended by three overtimes. The broadcast analyst on
ESPN called it the most exciting game in history. The game solidified ESPN interest in Division II football prompting ESPN coverage to now even include the semi-final games.
In 2005, the Bearcats were a Cinderella team being ranked 22nd at the start of the playoffs but winning all of its games on the road until reaching the finals with
Grand Valley State University. It led the game until the closing minutes and still came within a closing seconds dropped pass in the end zone from pulling the game out.
During Tjeersma run through 2005, Northwest has made seven post-season appearances and won five
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles.
The championships have rocketed Northwest into high visibility. The
St. Louis Rams donated their private jet to the team to fly the Bearcats to the 1999 champsionship game in
Florence, Alabama. Missouri rescinded its plans to close the school and U.S. 71 to Maryville finally was turned into a four-lane.
Northwest plays one game a year at
Arrowhead Stadium in
Kansas City, Missouri with
Pittsburg State University.
When Tjeerdsma began his run, Northwest could not play some home playoff games to which it was entitled because of poor conditions at Rickenbrode Stadium. The stadium underwent a $5 million renovation including the additions of luxury boxes and a color replay video board. The renovated stadium opened in 2002 under a new name of
Bearcat Stadium.
Tjeerdsma, his wife Carol reside in Maryville. They have three grown children.
In 2006 Tjeerdsma was elected president of the
American Football Coaches Association.
Springfield Native Now Heads American Football Coaches Association by Hod Nelson, January 21, 2006, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
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Northwest Missouri biography*
AFCA biography
