Bill Mignault To Receive Red O'Neill
Award From
The UConn Club
 STORRS,
Conn. (April 4, 2008) --- William “Bill”
Mignault, the winningest high school football coach in Connecticut history and a
former UConn student-athlete, will receive the
Red O’Neill Award when The UConn Club holds its 55th
Annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 22, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in
Cromwell, Conn.
The Red O’Neill Award is
annually presented to a UConn graduate who has gone from the athletic fields to
distinguish themselves in their chosen careers. It is named after Martin “Red”
O’Neill ’24. O’Neill played football at UConn and went on to graduate from Yale
University Medical School and had a long career as a surgeon before passing away
in 1955.
For information and to purchase
tickets to the dinner, please call the UConn Athletic Development Fund office at
(860) 486-3863.
Mignault played football at
UConn from 1949-51 as a running back as his ’49 Huskies tied for the Yankee
Conference championship. The 1949 Huskies were also the final gridiron team led
by legendary head coach J.O. Christian and Mignault played for head coach Arthur
Valpey in 1950 and ’51.
 Mignault
earned his bachelor’s degree from UConn in 1953 and also earned a master’s in
1959 and a sixth-year degree in 1965 from the school.
Mignault was the head football
coach at Ledyard (Conn.) High School for 42 years and recently announced his
retirement from that position. He is the only head coach in the history of the
Ledyard program and has been associated with the high school since it opened in
1963. Ledyard fielded its first varsity football team in 1966.
He was hired as the physical
education chairman, athletic director and football coach by the school’s first
principal Dr. Robert Gaucher – the son-in-law of Christian.
Mignault set the state record for coaching victories in
2001 and finished his career two wins shy of owning the record for coaching
victories in New England with 321 with 303 of them at Ledyard. His final career
coaching record was 321-130-5.
 He broke the Connecticut record on Oct. 20, 2001 when his
Ledyard team defeated Sports Sciences Academy of Hartford, 47-6. In that game,
Mignault’s grandson, B.K., threw a touchdown pass to another one of Mignault’s
grandson – Patrick.
Mignault led the Colonels to
state championships in 1986, 1991, 1993 and 2007. In his final game as Ledyard’s
head coach, the Colonels defeated Berlin High School 21-14 to win the Class M
State Championship. The winning touchdown pass in that game was caught by yet
another one of Mignault’s grandsons, Marc, on a trick play with 9:19 left in the
game.
Mignault led Ledyard to 10
Eastern Connecticut Conference championships and to six state playoff
appearances in addition to the four state championships.
He taught physical education at
Ledyard until 1992.
His first coaching position was in the U.S. Air Force,
where he fielded his first football team on a base in Germany with fellow
lieutenant Don Klosterman, who later became the general manager of the Baltimore
Colts and Los Angeles Rams.
Prior to his appointment at Ledyard, Mignault was the head
football coach at Waterford (Conn.) High School for five seasons from 1959-63.
He belongs to the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame
and earned a Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance in
2005.
A native of Dayville, Conn.,
Mignault graduated from Killingly High School in 1948 where he played baseball,
basketball, football and track.
Mignault and his wife of 55
years, Patricia, have three children – William, Jr., Brian and Pamela O’Brien –
and five grandchildren.
Bill, Jr. and Brian have both
served on the coaching staffs for their father at Ledyard. Brian is a former
head football coach at Norwich Free Academy and currently serves as the
principal of Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School in Danielson. |
