Joe Hamilton

Joe Hamilton died on the morning of Tuesday 6 October 2026 at the St. Barnabas Beaver Meadows personal care home in Beaver, Pennsylvania. He was 84. His health had deteriorated over his last few years as he lived with dementia; no other cause of death was given in public reports.

Blackhawk athletic director Jim Riggio confirmed the death to the Beaver County Times, and it was reported the same day by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was survived by his wife of 62 years, Barb, their son Joe, their daughter Terri and six grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were pending when his death was announced.

Joe Hamilton was born in January 1942 and played his high school football at Beaver High School in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He played linebacker and guard, was a two year letterman, and graduated in 1959.

He went on to Geneva College in Beaver Falls, where he was a four year letterman, earned All-State honors and was named a Little All-American honorable mention. He finished his college career in the Gem Bowl in Erie and graduated from Geneva in 1963.

Hamilton began coaching as an assistant at his alma mater, Beaver, from 1963 to 1965, when the Bobcats went 27-3. Midland hired him as head coach in 1966, when he was 24. His first team went 9-1 and won the Midland Athletic Conference title, and he was named conference Coach of the Year. In two seasons at Midland he went 12-5-2.

He became head coach at New Brighton in 1968 and stayed through 1974, going 46-18-1. In 1969, only his second season there, he led the Lions to the WPIAL title game, where they lost to Richland. He coached Hempfield Area for one season in 1975, his only head coaching job outside Beaver County.

In 1976 Hamilton was hired as a teacher and football coach at Blackhawk High School in Chippewa Township, which had opened a few years earlier. In his third season the Cougars reached the WPIAL Class 3A final, losing 7-0 to Penn Hills at Pitt Stadium. He was named a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Coach of the Year in 1978, coached in the 1979 Big 33 game and the 1980 Penn-Ohio game, and was Parkway Conference Coach of the Year in 1984.

His strongest run came in the 1990s, when Blackhawk won three straight WPIAL championships from 1991 to 1993 and a fourth in 1996, the last at Three Rivers Stadium. In 39 seasons at Blackhawk he went 280-142-7, made 19 WPIAL playoff appearances and reached the PIAA state championship game three times. Players who went on to college football included the quarterback Scott Weaver, who played at Illinois, Jim Peel of Ohio State, Brad Jones of Penn State and Mike Engel of West Virginia.

Alongside coaching he taught science and driver education at Blackhawk, retiring from teaching several years before he stepped down as coach. He retired from coaching in January 2015, after the 2014 season, with a record of 342-170-11 over 49 seasons.

Hamilton was married to his wife, Barb, for 62 years. They had a son, Joe, and a daughter, Terri, and six grandchildren. When he retired in 2015, he said Barb was the main reason he finally decided to step away, and that he wanted time to enjoy family life.

Jack Fullen, the former Blackhawk athletic director who had known him since 1969, described him as a very good friend and said: "Joe as a coach, he would be hard, but deep down, he also was soft with the kids. He treated them like you would your own kids."

Hamilton was one of the longest tenured head coaches in the WPIAL in any sport, coaching in six different decades. His 342 career wins rank second in WPIAL football history behind Jim Render and placed him seventh on Pennsylvania's all time list when he retired.

He was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2015, and was also honored by the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Former players such as Kim Niedbala, who later won a WPIAL title as head coach at Union, said they still used his drills decades later.