By TOM FLEISCHMAN
The (Ithaca, N.Y.) Journal

ITHACA, N.Y. - Jim Butterfield, the architect of three NCAA Division III championships and 206 victories in 27 years as head football coach at Ithaca College, died Tuesday night, four days shy of his 75th birthday.

Butterfield, the winningest coach in Bombers' football history and a 1997 inductee into the College Football Association Hall of Fame, died at Cayuga Medical Center from complications related to Alzheimer's disease, with which he lived for the past nine years.

"He was quite healthy and quite strong until the last month," said his wife of nearly 47 years, Lois Butterfield. "It's a progressive, relentless disease."

Funeral arrangements are incomplete. In addition to his wife, Butterfield is survived by a son, Terry, daughters Kristen and Gail, and six grandchildren.

In addition to his family, Butterfield leaves behind scores of former players, coaching adversaries and compatriots who were touched by the man affectionately known as "Butts."

"Having played for him and going into my profession, he gave me the ingredients I needed to be successful," said Mike Welch, a running back and team captain at Ithaca in the early 1970s who became an assistant under Butterfield in 1983 and then his successor in 1994.

"Where to start, what adjectives to use?" said Jerry Boyes, who played for Butterfield in the mid-1970s, returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach under Butterfield, then left in 1986 and built a fledgling Buffalo State football program into an NCAA playoff team before stepping down two years ago.

"Jim was my head coach, my mentor, he was a dear friend," Boyes said. "He was a tremendous influence on how I do everything, in my professional and personal life.

"The class of Jim Butterfield, the integrity of Jim Butterfield: I don't know of anybody else who comes close," Boyes said.

Born in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 30, 1927 and raised in Massachusetts, Philip James Butterfield was a 1945 graduate of Westboro (Mass.) High. He served in the Navy, and graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1953.

He earned his Master's degree from Maine in 1958.

An offensive guard on the Black Bears' football team, he was inducted into the University of Maine Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990 along with his late brother, Jack.

Butterfield spent 41 seasons as a football coach. His first job was at the Arms Academy in Shelburne Falls, Mass., where he compiled a two-year record of 11-4. He returned to the University of Maine, where he was line coach from 1956 to 1960, then spent seven years as an assistant coach at Colgate.

Butterfield began his IC coaching career on March 24, 1967, when he took over for Dick Lyon. Butterfield's first Ithaca team finished 4-4, winning its last two games.

The '68 and '69 squads were Butterfield's only two losing teams - both finished 3-5 - but IC bounced back to finish 4-4 in 1970.

After that, it was all winners: 23 consecutive seasons, one of the longest streaks in the NCAA, in any division.

Butterfield's teams appeared in 29 NCAA Division III playoff games, posting a 21-8 record. Both were Division III records at the time of his retirement.

Ithaca won its first of three national titles in 1979, defeating Wittenberg (Ohio) College, 14-10, in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Phenix City, Ala. Other titles came in:

- 1988, with a 39-24 victory over Central (Iowa) in Phenix City, and;

- 1991, with 34-20 over the University of Dayton in Bradenton, Fla.

Ithaca has appeared in seven Stagg Bowls overall, all under Butterfield.

Butterfield's reputation has extended well beyond the Northeast. He was named Kodak Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association in 1988 and '91, and earned AFCA District I Coach of the Year honors seven times.

He was honored by the New York Football Writers Association as Eastern Coach of the Year ('79, '88, '91).

In 1992, Butterfield became the third coach in college football history to have his school's stadium named after him while he was still active. South Hill Field became Butterfield Stadium on Sept. 19, 1992; only Eddie Robinson at Grambling and Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky had been so honored before Butterfield.

He finished with a career record of 206-71-1; Welch is second on IC's all-time coaching victories list (63-24-0).

Butterfield amassed impressive numbers and honors, but it was never about statistics and trophies, according to those who knew him best.

"Everything from discipline, integrity, hard work, fairness, class, that's what I took from him ... as my foundation in coaching," Welch said.

"He coached and played by the rules," Boyes said. "He taught hundreds of young men, and if they took away anything, they took away that. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't do something that has its roots in the lessons I learned as a player and an assistant coach under Jim."

"If you could ask Jim what he'd want on his gravestone," Lois Butterfield said, "he'd say, 'Here Lies A Teacher.' "

The Butterfield family has asked that donations in Butterfield's name be made to either Family & Children's Service, or the Jim Butterfield Scholarship Fund.