Early life Bloss was born April 4, 1869, in
Orleans, Indiana. Bloss attended
Indiana University during the 1889–90 and 1891–92 academic years where he was a star player on the football team. He departed after two years — the second of which he was team captain — to become a player-coach at
Washburn College in
Topeka, Kansas. With football coaching being a poorly remunerated part-time profession in this era, Bloss spent the next two years gainfully employed as a
civil engineer in Arizona He goes down in the history books as the school's first coach, as well as the quarterback of the
1893-94 team. He was regarded years later as "a great coach and one of the fiercest players that ever figured in the game in the Northwest." By mid-October, he had managed to locate 16 other players that would comprise the first gridiron team in Oregon State's history. Getting to this end did result in a certain amount of fudging: four players were not even students, including Bloss himself, with one being a local high school junior and another a member of the faculty. followed by six more in the team's second game, a 36–22 win on the road against
Oregon State Normal School. In that first season, OAC went on to a 5–1 record. Bloss left Corvallis after the 1893–94 season, but returned to coach again in 1897. He did not quarterback the team. He led OAC to a 5–0 season, including victories over the state universities of
Oregon and
Washington. When
Pacific University backed out of a "championship" game scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, the Agrics were accorded the title "Champions of the Northwest."
Life after football In 1908 Will Bloss was said to be again working as a civil engineer in "one of the southern states." During his last 14 years, Bloss worked as a district sales manager for the Ohio Brass Company. He was a
Scottish Rite Freemason and a member of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Bloss died suddenly at his home at 2:30 am the morning of June 22, 1921. He was survived by his wife, a daughter, and two sons. Bloss was buried at a family plot in
Muncie, Indiana. ==Head coaching record==