Eastern Washington University Athletics

A former Eastern football standout in the mid-30’s, Poffenroth was the school's head coach for six seasons from 1947-52. His teams were 32-19-1 (.625) with Evergreen Conference championships in 1948, 1949 and 1950 and a Washington Intercollegiate Conference (Winco) title in 1947. He also was the school’s baseball coach, and served as Dean of Men at Eastern from 1951-55. In order to get back into coaching, he left Eastern for Central Washington where he served as football coach for six seasons (1955-1960) and won two more EvCo titles in 1957 and 1958. That gave him a total of six league titles in a 12-year coaching career, with a collective record of 57-41-3 (.579) in 101 games. He was also chair of the physical education department at Central from 1960-76. In his head coaching career, he was 9-2-1 in Eastern versus Central games, including a 5-1 record against Central and a 4-1-1 mark versus Eastern.  He was among the first students to attend Rogers High School in Spokane when it opened in 1932, and he graduated in 1936. He was All-City in 1935, then earned unanimous All-Winco honors in 1937, 1938 and 1939 while playing for Eastern. The Savages were 24-7-1 in his four years as a quarterback in Cheney, and he earned his bachelor's degree at Eastern in 1940. Legendary Eastern coach Red Reese selected his All-Time Football Team in 1947, and Poffenroth was his quarterback. He was selected by the Eastern Athletic Department to the “100 for 100” All-Time Football Team, which was honored on Sept. 27, 2008, to commemorate Eastern’s 100th year of football. His brothers John (1933-34-35-36) and Bob (1946-47-48-49) also lettered in football at Eastern. Their parents, John and Mary, were of German descent and emigrated from Russia. Originally their name was spelled “Pfaffenrath,” but was changed by officials when they entered the United States at Ellis Island, N.Y. Interestingly, there are 19 Poffenroths who have received degrees from Eastern, but only five of them are from Abe’s family tree. Abe Poffenroth passed away on May 1, 1997 at the age of 76.