INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- Associate Athletic Director Bill Lynch has resigned his position at Butler University and will return to the football coaching ranks.  Lynch, in his second year as an athletic administrator at Butler, has accepted the position of head football coach at DePauw University.

A former head football coach at Butler, Ball State, Indiana and DePauw, Lynch has spent the past 21 months leading the efforts of Butler's athletics development office, while working closely with Butler Athletic Director Barry Collier on strategy and solicitation of gifts to support the needs of the athletic department.  Primary on his task list has been The Campaign For Hinkle Fieldhouse.  

“We are happy for Bill as he returns to the sidelines, but are also sad to see him go,” said Collier.  “He has done an excellent job in his leadership role at Butler and will do the same as DePauw's football coach.”

Lynch is returning to the program he guided in 2004.  In his one season as DePauw's head coach, he guided the Tigers to an 8-2 record and was named Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Co-Coach of the Year.  He left the following season to accept an assistant coaching position at Indiana University.

The 1977 Butler graduate was a three-time honorable mention All-American quarterback for the Bulldogs, 1974-76, and a three-time Indiana Collegiate Conference Player of the Year.  He still stands second on Butler's all-time passing list with 5,909 career yards.  He also was a four-year letterwinner and team captain in basketball, and he was the first Butler student-athlete to twice be named recipient of the prestigious Tony Hinkle Award, presented by the Indiana Collegiate Conference for outstanding scholastic and athletic achievement.

Lynch served as a Butler assistant football coach for seven seasons, before taking positions as offensive coordinator at Northern Illinois University and quarterbacks coach of the United States Football League's Orlando Renegades in 1984.  He returned to Butler as head coach in 1985 and guided the Bulldogs to four conference titles in five seasons.  He was a three-time conference Coach of the Year and a two-time AFCA Regional Coach of the Year.

He continued his football coaching career with assistant coaching positions at Ball State, 1990-92, and Indiana, 1993-94 and 2005-06, and then as head coach at Ball State, 1995-2002, DePauw and Indiana, 2007-10.

Lynch was inducted into the Butler Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.  In 2005, he was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame, and earlier this year he was named recipient of the Distinguished American Award from the National Football Foundation/College Hall of Fame Central Indiana Chapter.

A graduate of Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis, Lynch earned both a B.A. degree in education ('77) and a Master's Degree in Education ('79) from Butler.