Road to the Hall of Fame: John Bunting

John Bunting was the head football coach at Glassboro State/Rowan for only five years, but he had a tremendous impact. For his role in helping elevate the football program to the national stage, he will be inducted into the Shirley O’Day/Joy Solomen Rowan University/Glassboro State College Athletic Hall of Fame with the Class of 2021, earning his place among the finest in the University's rich athletic tradition. 

In five seasons at the helm, Bunting guided the Profs to an overall 38-14-2 record, but it was the 1991 season that made history, as Glassboro State earned its first bid to the NCAA Playoffs, and won its first outright NJAC title since 1977. Although the Profs fell to eventual champion Ithaca in that initial playoff game, the season set the tone as Bunting led them to another NJAC title and a trip to the national semifinals in 1992. 

Bunting was the Profs' first full-time coach, but his path to Glassboro came after a 13-year playing career, 11 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and two years with the USFL's Philadelphia Stars. The popular linebacker was a member of the Eagles' 1980 NFC Champion team and played in Super Bowl XV under coach Dick Vermeil, while also winning a USFL title  with the Stars in 1982. 

After his retirement, Bunting was a co-host on the Eagles' radio show and got his start in coaching first as an assistant with the then-Baltimore Stars and then at Brown University. That experience was challenging as he was making the commute from Philadelphia to Providence multiple times every week, but a connection made by his son, Brooks, opened the door in Glassboro. 

"Over that summer I sent him (Brooks) to a golf camp run by Ted Kershner, who was Glassboro State's coach. When he returned, he said that Ted asked what I was doing and if I'd like to help coach the defensive line - and that he gave Ted my number. I was already set to do radio for Temple, but Ted called and said he really wanted me to coach the defensive line in practice, even if I couldn't make the games," said Bunting. 

"That was a unique situation and I was very fortunate to do it. I had so much fun coaching those guys and they were so responsive. Ted was great with me and I knew of K.C. (assistant coach K.C. Keeler) from playing with the Stars. I got to know the rest of the staff really well and I enjoyed working with them."

The move was good for the Profs too as after one year as an assistant, Bunting was named the fifth head coach in school history in 1988 when Kershner stepped aside to become the athletic director. 

"After that year as an assistant, I really yearned to be a head coach and run my own program. I had ideas that I developed from being coached by Dick Vermeil  - doing right by the players, coaching them hard, and making them do the right things. It was something at that point in time I was ready for - both mentally and emotionally," said Bunting, who became the first full-time coach for the program. 

From the start, he wanted to build a complete football program at Glassboro State, and a winning one at that. 

"I wanted to get a winning program first and then see what we could do against the Montclair's of the world. They were the conference champions many, many years in a row and they had a good football program on a great foundation. So, I wanted to improve our foundation and get the recruiting better," said Bunting. 

He inherited a coaching staff that included his former Stars teammate and eventual successor at Rowan, Keeler, who became adept at recruiting transfers. “We had some really fine transfer players such as quarterback Eddie Hesson, who was from Burlington, NJ, and transferred from New Haven. He had an incredible career,” said Bunting. 

"We had a very good offense, developed the offensive line, had good running backs and we became a machine on offense. On defense I took things that I had learned when I played with the Stars. I played a 3-4 defense the last few years with the Eagles and I got into a system with the Stars that was out of sight,” he said. “We were able to play a lot of defenses and be very organized. We got tougher and smarter, and we became the number-one defense in the conference."

The changes made by Bunting were evident in the win-loss records, but also on campus and in the community. In addition to instilling discipline within the Profs, he established and oversaw a study hall for three nights a week that had the team meeting at the library. He started a program where the players visited nursing homes and got the Profs involved in Special Olympics. Bunting also established the Brown and Gold alumni club that assisted in raising funds so that they team could stay overnight prior to road games. 

"I wanted them to know how much I cared. I also wanted them to be productive, not just on the football field, but off the football field," said the coach, who saw the Profs' GPAs increase every year as did the number of seniors, indicating an improved retention in the program. 

Under Bunting, the Profs made a five-year progression, going from a 5-5 record in his first year, to a 9-2 mark in his fourth season in 1991 and culminating with a 12-1 record in his final season in 1992, with two NJAC titles and the first two NCAA Playoff appearances in school history. 

 

The 1992 Rowan College team was one of the best in school history as it went undefeated in the regular season (10-0) and won the first two NCAA Playoff games against WPI and Buffalo State. The Profs’ run ended in the semifinals with their first loss of the season to eventual national champion Washington and Jefferson as they finished the season with a school record 12 victories. That would be the first of 10 appearances in the national semifinals that the Profs have made throughout the years. 

“Saying goodbye and going to Kansas City (was difficult). It was the night after we lost in the semifinals to Washington and Jefferson, and they went on to win the championship. We played them in a very tight game. To say goodbye to those players was very, very difficult - it was a special team.”

His teams made many memories for the players, fans and the campus community while putting Glassboro State on the national map. 

"I remember the camaraderie that they had and the way they played the game. We were a no- nonsense team. We didn't showboat - I didn't believe in that stuff - and I talked a lot about that. And I was very hard on the players about treating about both their teammates and others on campus with respect," Bunting said. "The players themselves really embraced what we were doing. I loved my coaching staff, I really did. I loved being with them."

The job at GSC also had a huge impact on his personal life. It was there that Bunting met his wife, Dawn Shilling, who was the Profs' women's basketball coach, and they married in 1991. A Glassboro State alum, Dawn was a successful coach as well, posting a 60.0 winning percentage in eight seasons and leading the Profs to an NJAC title and three NCAA Tournament appearances. She was also the Profs' softball coach for six years and notched 153 wins while guiding them to one NJAC Championship and four straight NCAA Regional Berths. Dawn is already a member of Rowan's Athletic Hall of Fame from the Class of 2003, so John's induction will round it out for the household.  

Following his fifth season as head coach in 1992, the door opened for his return to the NFL. Carl Petersen, who had been the player personnel director for the Eagles and Stars, was now in the general manager's role with the Kansas City Chiefs and he offered Bunting an assistant's job on Marty Schottenheimer's staff. Bunting left Glassboro in February 1993 having won 72 percent of his games and giving the Profs their start in the NCAA Playoffs, which Keeler and current coach Jay Accorsi would continue. 

After four seasons with the Chiefs, Bunting joined Vermeil with the St. Louis Rams, where he spent three years as the linebackers' coach and co-defensive coordinator for the team that won Super Bowl XXXIV. He then moved on to the New Orleans Saints for one season before attaining what he called his "dream job" in 2001, when he was named the head coach at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. 

"We were thrilled. Dawn and I had traveled and most coaches, if they coach for a long time, they coach at a million different places. Their résumés will have 10 to 15 stops. But we were able to get to the final destination much easier and in much less time because I played 13 years. My parents cried (when it was announced). We were thrilled to get that job," said the former All-ACC selection. 

As satisfying as it was to coach at his alma mater for six seasons, which included a win over Auburn in the 2001 Peach Bowl, Bunting looks back at the time in Glassboro with great appreciation. 

“Glassboro State/Rowan was very, very good to me. I thoroughly enjoyed coaching there. It was the best time I ever had coaching. It was the most fun, put it that way. I also met my future wife there so all real, real good,” he said. 

And with the induction into the Hall of Fame, Rowan gets to show its appreciation for what Bunting did for the school and its football program. The coach found out when former athletic director Joy Solomen gave him the good news in person last winter upon a visit to the Bunting’s in Florida. 

"I'm thrilled (about the Hall of Fame). Once again, it was the best thing that could've ever happened to me was getting that head job there and enjoying coaching,” he said. “Staff harmony is so important and I never really quite had it like I had it at Glassboro, or like I saw it with the Stars with everybody pulling in the same direction.”

"It's going to mean a lot. I know a lot of players are going to want to be there. Lots of friends and family will be there. It will be a nice time to reminisce and count our blessings about what we were able to do and where we are at this stage in our lives," Bunting said. "With what we're going through now with the pandemic, it's just a reminder about how good things have been and how much we need to enjoy the rest of our time here on earth."

The 2021 Rowan/Glassboro State Athletic Hall of Fame Class also includes Mary Marino – Field Hockey and Lacrosse Coach (1987-97, 1988-97 and 1999-07), Moriah Holmstrom  – Field Hockey (1997-2000),  Tiffany Miller – Softball (1994-97), Bob Pfeffer – Baseball (1975-78), Mike Rucci – Baseball (2002-05) and Rob Scott – Basketball (1994-98).