MARIETTA, Ohio — Former Marietta College athletic director and head football coach Joe McDaniel passed away Monday evening.

McDaniel became the head football coach at Marietta in 1966 and athletic director in 1969. He left Marietta in 1980 to become the head football coach at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. He is the winningest coach in Pioneer football history with 65 wins.

Nearly 70 of McDaniel's players earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors. His 1969 squad went 8-1, while the 1974 Pioneers lost to Wittenberg in the OAC title game. McDaniel was inducted into the Marietta College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.

McDaniel served Centre athletics for over two decades, most notably as the Colonel head football coach from 1980-1997. He went 101-63-3 overall with the Colonels, retiring as the winningest coach in program history. His career record of 166-122 5 ranked seventh in wins among NCAA Division III coaches at the time of his induction into Centre's Hall of Fame in 2002.

His Centre teams claimed seven conference championships, and McDaniel earned conference Coach of the Year honors three times. As golf coach from 1981-1993, he claimed three more conference titles and had one team advance to the NCAA Championship.

Following his coaching career, McDaniel served as Centre's athletic director from 1998 to 2002. The Colonel's football field was renamed Joe McDaniel Field in the fall of 2011.

A native of Belleville, Ohio, McDaniel was a three-sport athlete at Muskingum University graduating in 1956. He earned eight varsity letters including four in football, three in basketball and one in baseball.

McDaniel was named Muskingum's Most Valuable Player in football in 1954 and 1955 and in basketball his senior season. He capped his football career with All-OAC and honorable mention Little All-American honors in 1955. Following graduation, McDaniel served as an assistant football and golf coach for the Muskies. He was inducted into the Muskingum Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.

In addition to being a Hall of Fame member at Muskingum, Marietta and Centre, McDaniel has also been inducted into the Fredericktown High School Hall of Fame.