Western Colorado University Athletics

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Rodriguez went from a Western State football player to one of the top assistant coaches in the National Football League. Rodriguez arrived after Western in 1961 and played for the Mountaineers for three years under head coach O. Kay Dalton. Following his playing career, Rodriguez got his coaching start at Stratton High School where he served as both assistant High School coach and Head Middle School coach for all sports that the Middle School provided. After a two year stop as Head Football Coach at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, Rodriguez moved up the college game. Rodriguez served as a Graduate Assistant at Arizona, where the received his Master’s of Education in Administration. After that, Rodriguez held assistant jobs at Western Illinois, Florida State, Iowa State and then again at Western Illinois. Rodriguez then tried his hand at the professional level, serving as an assistant in the USFL for three years before the league folded in 1986. Rodriguez then went back to college for a year at Northern Iowa before turning pro for good with a one-year stint in the CFL with the Ottawa Roughriders. After that it was on to the NFL in 1988, where he would spend the next 19 years as one of the top Special Teams coaches in the league. Twice during his career he was voted Special Teams Coach of the Year by his peers and he was also named Special Teams Coach of the Decade (1990’s) by the Dallas Morning News. While in the NFL, Rodriguez coaches for the Los Angeles Raiders (1988-89), Arizona Cardinals (1990-93), Washington Redskins (1994-97), Seattle Seahawks (1998-2003) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2003-2006). Rodriguez retired from coaching in 2006 after coaching for 43 years.