Bob Debesse
Hometown:
Sport: Football
Years Played:
Hall of Honor Induction: 1998

A native of Boston, DeBesse (born Sept. 30, 1959) grew up in Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Southwest Texas in 1982. He and his wife, Janet, a former Southwest Texas gymnast and cheerleader, have three children: Brittney, Kaila and Cameron.

DeBesse was a three-year letterwinner at Southwest Texas from 1978 to 1980 and was special teams captain his senior year. He was named to the 1980 Texas All-Academic team. His final two seasons came under head coach Jim Wacker, beginning a partnership that lasted nearly two decades from Southwest Texas to TCU to Minnesota. DeBesse then spent two years as a student assistant with the Bobcats and was a part of their back-to-back Division II national championship teams in 1981 and 1982.

From 1983 to 1991, DeBesse was an assistant coach at Texas Christian. He was offensive coordinator the last two seasons, earning Southwest Conference Offensive Coordinator of the Year honors in 1990.

DeBesse was offensive coordinator at Minnesota from 1992 to 1996. The Golden Gophers led the Big Ten in passing offense in 1992 (all games), 1993 (all games and conference-only games), 1994 (conference games), 1995 (conference games) and 1996 (all games). In addition, DeBesse's multi-dimensional offense produced numerous rushing, passing and receiving school records.

DeBesse's next stop was at his Alma Mater,Southwest Texas State, where he served as head coach from 1997 to 2002. The Bobcats were 7-4 during the 2000 season -- their best record since 1991 -- including a school-best 5-2 mark in the Southland Football League and a No. 24 national ranking in the NCAA Division I-AA final poll.

DeBesse was named recievers coach at Purdue on March 13, 2003.While there, he coached two record-setting receivers at Purdue. In 2004, Taylor Stubblefield became the NCAA career receptions leader with 316. The year before, John Standeford set Big Ten records for career receptions (since broken by Stubblefield) and receiving yards with 3,788.

DeBeese's most recent stop was under former SWT Coach Dennis Franchione, holding the same position he held while at Purdue.