Head Coach: Steve Bell, 12th year. MWC Coach of the Year
Phone: 309-457-2175
E-mail: sbell@monmouthcollege.edu
STEVE BELL ranks as one of the most, if not THE most successful coach in Fighting Scots’ history. He has more wins and more NCAA playoff appearances than any gridiron coach in the 118 years of Monmouth football. Recording his 84th career win in 2010, Bell moved to the top of the win list at Monmouth. His .737 winning percentage is also the best among Scots’ football coaches with more than two seasons under their belts. Bell has guided the Scots to unbeaten regular seasons and conference titles three times since 2005, including back-to-back crowns and NCAA playoff appearances in 2008 and 2009. The 2008 team led the nation in scoring and was ranked as high as eighth in the national polls. Bell has earned Midwest Conference Coach of the Year honors four times and has produced seven conference Players of the Year in addition to multiple All-Americans and the 2009 Melberger Award winner, given to the nation’s top Division III player. Bell serves the college as a physical education instructor. He received his bachelor’s degree in that field at Bemidji State.
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1971, 1972, 1976, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011
MIDWEST CONFERENCE SOUTH DIVISION CHAMPIONS
1987, 1988, 1989
NCAA TOURNAMENT QUALIFIER
2005, 2008, 2009, 2011
Program overview with Coach Bell
2011 FIGHTING SCOTS
Football Workout Video
About the Program
Monmouth College's first official football game was played in 1888 against Knox College. Monmouth was crowned "college champions of Illinois" in 1905 and repeated in 1906 when the team recorded its first perfect season at 8-0.
Hall of Famer Francis "Jug" Earp, who would go on to play 11 seasons of professional football with the Green Bay Packers, dominated the Fighting Scot offensive line in the early 1920s and the Warren Taylor-Keith Molesworth passing combination of the mid-'20s was one of the finest the college has ever produced. Molesworth would later play eight NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears.
Robert "Bobby" Woll, one of the best all-around athletes ever to wear a Monmouth jersey and the only person to have his football number (29) retired at the college, was the star during the 1931-33 seasons.
In 1981 the new football field was dedicated and named Bobby Woll Athletic Field in honor of Woll's years of competition and coaching service at Monmouth. Following his death in August of 1999, the football field was rededicated Bobby Woll Memorial Field.
The 1952 and 1953 squads featured the rushing prowess of All-American tailback Ray Brooks.
The late '60s through the mid '70s saw some of the most prolific teams in school history featuring two of the best running backs to ever play at Monmouth in Charlie Corle (1967-69) and Ron Baker (1972-75), who ended his career as the team's all-time leading rusher with 3,642 yards.
The 1972 squad posted the best record of any Monmouth team to that season, winning the MCAC championship with a perfect 9-0 record.
Following a heartbreaking 3-0 road loss to Coe in the infamous 1986 "Mud Bowl", the Scots won a school-record 26 consecutive regular season games between 1986 and 1989.
The Scots advanced to the MCAC league championship game in 1987 and enjoyed a three-year run as South Division champions. Mark Reed, who quarterbacked the 1987 divisional champion team, established an NCAA Division III national record that year with 17 rushing touchdowns. Monmouth's first overtime game was ironically against archrival Knox. The Scots won a thrilling 13-7 victory over their rivals in a 1991 snowstorm.
In 2005 the Scots finished the regular season with a 10-0 mark and in doing so captured their first conference title since 1976 and advanced to the NCAA Playoffs for the first time in school history.
The NCAA Playoffs were again in the picture in 2008 when the Scots again posted a 10-0 regular season mark. Monmouth hosted the first playoff game in the history of the school and won the program's first postseason game, earning them a second home date that year. The Scots made it back-to-back 10-0 campaigns in 2009 and hosted their third playoff game in two years.