Roger Bixel guided McComb High School to two Hancock County League football titles and one Blanchard Valley Conference crown while compiling a 65-21-7 record in 11 years as the Panthers’ head football coach. Bixel coached McComb to HCL titles in 1962 (7-1) and 1964 (6-0-3), while claiming the first BVC crown in 1965 (8-0-1). McComb’s 1959 (5-1-1), 1961 (7-2), 1966 (8-1) and 1967 (7-2) teams were league runners-up. The Bluffton College graduate then moved on to his alma mater, serving as a BC football assistant (1969-70) and freshmen basketball coach before assuming the head baseball post in 1970 and taking over the football program in 1971. Under Bixel’s guidance the Beavers won the first-ever Hoosier-Buckeye Collegiate Conference championship in 1972 when he claimed both NAIA District 22 and H-BCC coach of the year honors. His 1974 squad was H-BCC runners-up. In baseball, Bixel coached BC into the NAIA District 22 playoffs in 1973, 1974 and 1975 (13-9). A 15-year baseball umpire, he worked at three Ohio High School state baseball championships and six regional tournaments. Before graduating in 1958 from Bluffton, Bixel earned 11 letters and was a football co-captain for two seasons. Bixel is a 1975 BC Hall of Fame inductee.