Joe Walton is a football coach. His father was a football coach. His brother was a football coach.

Walton, 72, the only coach in the 15-year history of the Robert Morris football program, recently signed a contract extension and will be coaching through the 2011 season.

"As long as they want me, I'll coach," he said yesterday.

He hesitated for a moment before adding, "I lost my wife this fall, what else would I be doing? Coaching takes my mind off everything. It's something to look forward to. If I ever stop enjoying what I'm doing, that will be the time to get out."

Walton coached this past season with a heavy heart after Ginger, his wife of 46 years, died of cancer.

"It won't be the same without her," Walton said. "The older I get and the longer I coach I've gotten more at peace with myself as far as what I want to accomplish. The game has a more personal feeling for you as you get older. I've always wanted to be a football coach."

That dream started to take shape when Walton was a young boy sitting on the bench at Griffith Stadium watching his dad, Frank "Tiger" Walton, play on the offensive and defensive lines for the Washington Redskins in the 1940s. The elder Walton later was the head coach at North Allegheny High School in the '60s and an assistant at Geneva College.

Walton's father never got the opportunity to watch his son coach.

"He died so young, at the age of 42," said Walton, who played at Beaver Falls High School. "I know he was proud of the fact I was playing football. He died on my first day of class at Pitt."

Walton was an All-America tight end for the Panthers and spent 35 years in the NFL as a player, scout, assistant coach and head coach. He coached the New York Jets from 1983-89 and his most recent job in the NFL was as offensive coordinator under Chuck Noll with the Steelers in 1990-91.

"I accomplished most of the things I set out to do," he said. "But I didn't win a Super Bowl."

Walton was hired in the summer of 1993 to put together a football program from scratch at Robert Morris. The program's inaugural season was '94.

"There were a lot of challenges. I had never been a coach in college. I had never built a program before. I wanted to see if I could do those things," said Walton, whose Colonials were 4-6 this past season to give him an 86-55-1 record. "I was fortunate to have been in the perfect place for me at that time in my life when Robert Morris called. It seems like the years have just clicked by and all of a sudden it's been 15 years.

"One thing about football, it's a constant challenge. The next game, the next season, the next group of players -- there's always something you're shooting for. The biggest challenge is getting the team back up when it's down. Of course nobody likes to lose, but the most satisfaction is seeing your players develop, and I'm not just talking players in college."

Walton has seen a lot of changes in himself, the game and the players during the past four decades.

"Football goes in circles. Things have a tendency to come back if you wait long enough," he said. "There's nothing really new. Most of the kids today are more aware of the money that can be made and the success they can have in football. You find more egos to deal with in the pros today, and I guess in the major schools, than you did back when I got started.

"I haven't had that many of those issues at Robert Morris."

Robert Morris competes in Division I-AA, a long way from the glitz and glamour of big-time programs.

"But football is football," Walton said. "It doesn't matter where you play it, the players have to work hard and the coaches have a lot of teaching to do. There always are challenges as a coach."