Joe Harper (American football)

Joe Harper (born c. 1936) is an American football coach and former player. He is the offensive quality control coach at California Polytechnic State University. Harper served as the head football coach at Cal Poly from 1968 to 1981, at Northern Arizona University from 1982 to 1984, and at California Lutheran University from 1990 to 1995, compiling a career coaching record of 131–95–4. He led the 1980 Cal Poly Mustangs football team to the NCAA Division II Football Championship. Harper rejoined the Cal Poly Mustangs football program in 2011.

A native of Glendale, California, Harper attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he lettered in football for three seasons, from 1956 to 1958. He was co-captain of the 1957 UCLA Bruins football team. Harper graduated from UCLA in 1959 and spent one season coaching at his alma mater, as an assistant for the freshmen football team. He spent the 1960 season as head football coach at Riverside City College in Riverside, California before serving as line coach at Colorado State University in 1961 and the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1962. From 1963 to 1967 Harper worked as an offensive line coach at the University of Colorado Boulder under Eddie Crowder. Harper was hired as the head football coach at Cal Poly in February 1968. That July he was appointed as the school's athletic director.