Coach of Indiana in its Rose Bowl game

John Pont, 80, a football coach who guided Indiana University to its only Rose Bowl appearance 40 years ago and also coached at Northwestern, Yale and Miami of Ohio, died Tuesday at his home in Oxford, Ohio. He had been fighting cancer.

Pont coached the Hoosiers from 1965 to 1972. In the 1967 season, Indiana was 9-2 before representing the Big Ten Conference in the Rose Bowl in 1968. The Hoosiers lost, 14-3, to USC’s national championship team that featured running back O.J. Simpson. Pont was named Division I-A coach of the year.

Born Nov. 13, 1927, in Canton, Ohio, Pont spent 13 years at Miami as a player, assistant coach and head coach. When he graduated, he was the school’s all-time leading rusher with 2,457 yards.

Pont was head coach at Miami from 1956 to 1962 and at Yale in 1963-64. After leaving Indiana he was head coach at Northwestern from 1973 to 1977. At Northwestern, he also was athletic director from 1975 to 1980.

After a few years of retirement, Pont took a job coaching high school football, moved on to Division III College of Mount St. Joseph, then coached an industrial league team in Japan until retiring for good in 2005.