Career
He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (WSU) in 1977, and the University of Missouri (MU) from 1978 to 1984, compiling an overall college football record of 53 wins, 37 losses, and three ties. Powers was also an assistant coach under both Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne at the University of Nebraska (NU) between 1969 and 1976. He was an all-state high school quarterback from Kansas City, Missouri, and also played on Devaney"s first team at Nebraska in 1962, earning three letters as a Husker.
After his college career, Powers played professionally for six years in the American Football League (American Federation of Labor-Congress) with the Oakland Raiders.
As a safety, he started for the 1967 American Federation of Labor-Congress Champion Raiders and in the second American Federation of Labor-Congress-NFL World Championship game, known as Super Bowl World War II
After leaving Nebraska, Powers took an unranked Washington State team into Lincoln, Nebraska and knocked of the 15th ranked Huskers. The following year he went to Lincoln with another unranked team, the Missouri Tigers and he pulled off a victory over a #2 ranked Nebraska team
The Missouri Tigers would lose 25 straight games to Nebraska before their next victory over the Huskers, prompting Tiger fans to wonder what might have been had he stayed. During his tenure at Missouri, Powers compiled a 46–33–3 (579) record, including four straight bowl appearances from 1978 to 1981.
His best seasons came in 1980 and 1981, where he posted back-to-back 8–4 records.
In addition, his Tiger football teams went 3–2 in bowl games, defeating Louisiana State University in the 1978 Liberty Bowl, South Carolina in the 1979 Hall of Fame Classic, and Southern Mission in the 1981 Tangerine Bowl. Missouri also played in the 1980 Liberty Bowl, a loss to Purdue and the 1983 Holiday Bowl, losing to a Brigham Young University Cougars squad led by quarterback Steve Young. On October 24, 1979, the National Collegiate Athletic Association"s Committee on Infractions publicly reprimanded Missouri for a violation of National Collegiate Athletic Association Constitution 3–2 related to a failure to exercise institutional control.
The violation was in regard to the use of a fund established outside the university for the purpose of paying Powers for debt he assumed while negotiating to become MU"s head coach.
