William F. Barnes (October 20, 1917 – April 23, 2009)[1] was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1958 to 1964. Barnes guided his teams to a 31–34–3 (.478) record, including two seven-win seasons in 1960 and 1961 and an appearance in the Rose Bowl.
After the war, Barnes served as an assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas for four seasons. He moved west to UCLA in 1950 to serve as an assistant under head coach Red Sanders. When Sanders died of a heart attack shortly before the 1958 season on August 14, fellow Bruins assistant George W. Dickerson was promoted to head coach.[2] Two weeks later on August 30, Dickerson was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center with "nervous exhaustion".[3] Dickerson returned on September 11, and led the Bruins for three games as head coach, losing to #21 Pittsburgh on September 20, winning at Illinois, then losing 14–0 at Oregon State.
On the night before the Florida game, Dickerson was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center, again suffering from nervous exhaustion; Barnes was named acting head coach for the rest of the season.[4][5] He remained through 1964 and guided his teams to a 31–34–3 (.478) record. Barnes won two conference (AAWU) titles in 1959 and 1961, and led the sixteenth-ranked Bruins to the Rose Bowl. Three of the assistant coaches from Sanders' 1954 national championship team later served as head coaches for the Bruins: Dickerson, Barnes, and Tommy Prothro. Sanders and Prothro also were from Tennessee.
After going 10–20 (.333) in his last three seasons, Barnes resigned after the 1964 season after learning that athletic director J. D. Morgan was not going to renew his contract.[1][6]
After leaving UCLA, Barnes became a National Football League (NFL) scout, and later became a real estate developer. Barnes died at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica at the age of 91. He was survived by his wife Frances, to whom he had been married for 62 years; they had no children.[1]
Barnes was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.[7]
^Wolf, Al - Dickerson's Condition Improves. Los Angeles Times, September 2, 1958. George Dickerson, new head football coach at UCLA, was reported "progressing well" yesterday at UCLA Medical Center, after being admitted Saturday suffering from nervous exhaustion.
^Wolf, Al - UCLA'S DICKERSON ILL, OUT FOR YEAR. Barnes in Charge of Grid Team. Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1958. George Dickerson, UCLA head football coach, late yesterday' was readmitted to the UCLA Medical Center after suffering a "bad setback" from the nervous exhaustion which hospitalized him just before the season began.
^Murray, Jim - The Barnes Door Shut. Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1964
Wolf, Al - SPORTRAITS: Barnes Smart Football Man. Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1958. Bill Barnes, moving up to become UCLA's head football coach for the rest of the season Thursday when nervous exhaustion again struck down George Dickerson, is a pleasant, smallish fellow of 40
