John Coatta (1929 in Dearborn, Michigan, United States - December 26, 2000 in Minnetonka, Minnesota, United States) was the head football coach of the Wisconsin Badgers football program from 1967 to 1969 and at Minnesota State University, Mankato from 1970 to 1975.

Coatta played quarterback at Wisconsin from 1949 to 1951 and in 1950, he set the Big Ten season pass completion percentage record (.642), a record that he held until 1976.

In 1959, Coatta left private business in Madison, Wisconsin to accept an assistant coach's job at Florida State under Perry Moss and subsequently Bill Peterson. From 1959 to 1964, he coached a number of positions at the school. He then returned to Wisconsin as an assistant coach under Milt Bruhn for two seasons after which he was promoted to head coach.

During his head coaching tenure at Wisconsin, he compiled a 3-26-1 (.117) record. He set an NCAA record for most consecutive games without a win to begin a career with 23. He didn't win a game in his first two seasons, and won all three of his games in his final season. His three wins came against Iowa 23-17, Indiana 36-34, and Illinois 53-14. Allegedly, the Badgers passed on former Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler when they hired Coatta. Schembechler was the head coach at Miami University at the time.

After Minnesota State, Mankato (temporarily) dropped football after the 1975 season, Coatta joined the staff of Cal Stoll at the University of Minnesota as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 1977 to 1978. He later scouted for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.

[edit] Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl	Coaches#	AP°
Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten Conference) (1967–1969)
1967	Wisconsin	0-9-1	0-6-1	T-9th
1968	Wisconsin	0-10	0-7	10th
1969	Wisconsin	3-7	3-4	T-5th
Wisconsin:		3-26-1	3-17-1
Minnesota State University, Mankato (North Central Conference) (1970–1975)
1970	Minnesota State, Mankato	7-2-1
1971	Minnesota State, Mankato	7-3
1972	Minnesota State, Mankato	6-5	3-4	T-4th
1973	Minnesota State, Mankato	7-4	4-3	T-3rd
1974	Minnesota State, Mankato	5-4-1	3-3-1	T-5th
1975	Minnesota State, Mankato	3-6	2-5	T-5th
Minnesota State, Mankato:		35-24-2	12-15-1
Total:		38-50-3
National Championship         Conference Title         Conference Division Title
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

Preceded by Milt Bruhn

University of Wisconsin–Madison Head Football Coach 1967–1969

Succeeded by John Jardine

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