Knox College Prairie Fire

Bill Allison has always been an educator, serving for 34 years in the Galesburg school district and joined the Prairie Fire coaching staff in 1996. The 2021 season will mark his 47th year of coaching football, spending the majority of his time as the Running Backs coach for the Prairie Fire.

Allison and his family have long had ties to Knox and the Galesburg community. Both his wife Joyce and he graduated from Knox in 1972. His parents were alumni of the Knox College class of 1942. 
 
Allison has two children who both had outstanding athletic careers in the purple and gold. Reed, a 2000 graduate, played four years of football and is now a school administrator in Geneva, Illinois. His daughter Andie played women’s basketball for four years before graduating in 2008 and now teaches in nearby Knoxville. The Galesburg resident also has a daughter Libby who was a graduate of Western Illinois University and serves as a Media Relations Coordinator for OSF Healthcare.
 
During his time at Knox, Allison has coached seven All-Conference running backs, including the school's two all-time leading rushers.