BATON ROUGE – Bill Arnsparger, who was one of the top defensive minds in professional football and a former head football coach at LSU in the mid-1980s, passed away on Friday at the age of 88 at his home in Athens, Alabama.
Arnsparger was head coach of the Tigers for three seasons (1984-86), leading LSU to two Sugar Bowl berths in 1984 and 1986. The 1986 squad was the school’s first Southeastern Conference champion since 1970. Shortly after the final regular season game in 1986, Arnsparger was hired as athletics director at the University of Florida.
The Tigers were 8-3-1 overall and 4-1-1 to finish second in the SEC in 1984, 9-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 (T-2nd) in 1985 and 9-3 and 5-1 in winning the SEC title in 1986.