Truman State University Athletics

Jack Perrin is another Wood River, Ill., product who ended up as a Bulldog. He enrolled at the university in 1955 and lettered four years in football and track. In football he was an All-Conference running back as a sophomore. In his junior and senior seasons, Mr. Perrin played three different offensive positions, halfback, fullback and wingback, and three different defensive positions, linebacker, cornerback and safety. He also earned honorable mention All-Conference accolades as a fullback during his college football career. In track he was a pole-vaulter. After graduation in 1960, he was assistant football coach for four years at Mehlville High School. During this time he invented and patented a football training apparatus that was distributed nationally. Mr. Perrin moved to Boise Junior College in Idaho for two years to teach in the Physical Education Department and serve as offensive/defensive backfield coach for teams that were nationally ranked and participated in the National Junior College bowl games. In 1966 he went to Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. where he still works. He has spent 16 years as head football coach taking a program that had won only four games in three years and turning it into a nationally ranked program. Between 1967-71 Mesa was nationally ranked in the Top 10 Junior Colleges. In 1969 Mesa was number one in the nation. Seven of his former players have gone on to play professional football.