Warmath played
college football for the
Tennessee Volunteers under legendary coach
Robert Neyland. After graduation from college, Warmath was the line coach for one season and end coach for three seasons at Tennessee before entering military service during
World War II. After the service, he was named head line coach at Tennessee, and then served in the same capacity at the
United States Military Academy under
Red Blaik;
Vince Lombardi was the backfield coach at Army during those years. Warmath then spent two seasons (1952–1953) as head coach at
Mississippi State University before resigning at the end of the 1953 season to take the Minnesota job. After coming to Minnesota, Warmath had immediate success, leading the Gophers to a 7–2 record in his first season and a 6–1–2 record in 1956. However, Warmath came under fire after three straight losing seasons in which the Gophers finished a combined 6–20, including the 1958 campaign in which the Gophers won only one game and the 1959 campaign in which the Gophers finished last in the Big Ten and won two games. Despite fans throwing garbage on his lawn and talk from Gopher boosters that the University should buy out the last two years of his contract, Warmath would survive the storm and the following season the Gophers won the Big Ten title, with an 8–1 record, and were declared national champions by the
Associated Press and
United Press International after the regular season was completed. Minnesota subsequently lost the
Rose Bowl Game. While at Minnesota, Warmath became one of the most successful coaches in Gophers' history, leading the team to two Big Ten titles and two Rose Bowls. His 1961 team was awarded a Rose Bowl berth by default after Ohio State, the conference champion, declined the invitation. The Big Ten Conference, at the time, did not allow the conference champion to go to the Rose Bowl back-to-back. Warmath is the last Gophers coach to win a national championship, a Big Ten title, or a Rose Bowl. Quarterback
Sandy Stephens, who was installed as the starting quarterback as a sophomore in 1959, was the first black
All-American quarterback. With the national exposure of his bowl appearances, Warmath was able to recruit other top black athletes including future
NFL stars
Bobby Bell,
Carl Eller, and
Aaron Brown. Ironically, the year Warmath won the wire service polls national championship, The University of Mississippi, Warmath's archrival at Mississippi State, only narrowly lost the AP championship vote, but was declared the
Football Writers Association of America national champion after it won the
Sugar Bowl and all the bowl games were completed. Ole Miss, like Mississippi State and most historically white southern universities at the time, would not accept black athletes. Many consider it conceivable that this, along with other negative facts and stereotypes about it and the state of Mississippi, could have cost Ole Miss the AP title. Warmath's tenure crested after the 1967 Big Ten title season. Following a 6–4 record in 1968, he posted losing records in his final three years. Following the 1971 season,
Cal Stoll was hired as coach of the Gophers and Warmath was made an assistant to the athletic director. Warmath stayed in that role until 1978 when he took a job with the
Minnesota Vikings as an assistant coach, a position he held for two seasons before becoming a regional scout for the team. In 18 seasons at Minnesota, Warmath's teams amassed an 87–78–7 (.526) record and won eight games in a season three times. He compiled a career record of 97–84–10. ==Later life==