University of Nevada Athletics

Head Baseball Coach & Asst. Football Coach (1960-67)
A 1952 graduate of the University of Nevada and McGill, Nev., native, Bill Ireland mentored Nevada’s freshman team in 1960 and went on to spend seven years as the Wolf Pack’s head baseball coach from 1961-67. After his time at Nevada, he went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he became the school’s first football coach. He served as UNLV’s football coach from 1968-72 and then became the Rebels’ athletics director from 1973-80. Ireland is credited with helping to come up with the idea for the Fremont Cannon, one of the largest and most expensive traveling trophies in college football and the prize that is sought when Nevada and UNLV meet on the gridiron each fall. Ireland was able to sell boosters from both schools on the idea, and the trophy, which is a replica of the gun that accompanied Captain John C. Fremont on his expedition through Oregon, Nevada and California in 1843-44, was presented as a gift to the students of both schools in 1970. Ireland was inducted into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987 and passed away in September of 2007 at the age of 80.