Hal Yinger

Harold L. Yinger (March 19, 1919 – February 16, 2000) was an America football and track and field coach, professor and administrator at Central Missouri State College.

He enrolled at Central in 1950 to pursue a Masters degree while working as a graduate assistant in the physical education department and with the football and track and field teams. The next year, he was hired as the football line coach and was reunited on the staff with former school mate, Harry Fritz. Fritz would become the Mules' head coach in 1952 and the father of former Mules' head football coach, Willie Fritz. In 1952, Yinger left Warrensburg to be the head football coach at Tarkio college and returned to Central the next year. At that time, he was rehired as the football line coach and appointed the head track and field coach. He served in that position from 1953 to 1957. During that period, his teams won the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association indoor championships in 1953 and 1954 and the outdoor championships in 1954 and 1955. Yinger was promoted to head football coach in 1957 and served in that capacity for four years.^[1] Yinger served as the director of the school intramural program in 1961 and the next year as the athletic director. In 1962, he was promoted to full professor and became the chairman of the division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He retired in that capacity in 1977 to resume teaching full time and from the school in September 1984.^[2]

Yinger was a multi-sport athlete at Jackson High School in Jackson, Ohio, and graduated in 1937. At Rio Grande College, he played three sports and was named the football team captain and All-Ohio as a center in 1938.^[3] Yinger enrolled at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College in 1939 and played football and baseball for two seasons before joining the US Army. He served from 1941 to 1946 and spent most of that period at Camp Kearns, Kearns, Utah. There he was a physical training officer "9and played on the base football and basketball teams. In 1943, he was named to the All-Rocky Mountain and All-Service football teams as a center and was the only officer on the base team.^[4][5] Yinger returned to Eastern Kentucky State College in 1946 and received All Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors as a center.^[6]

Professional Honors: "Who's Who in American Education 1965; The Centennial Award For Excellence In Teaching from Eastern Kentucky University, 1974; named to the Rio Grande College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1975 for football; and awarded the Rio Grande College Outstanding Achievement Award in 1980. Yinger was married to Virginia Long and they had one son, Andrew.^[7]

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