Ithaca, NY--Philip J. "Jim" Butterfield, who won three national championships in his 27 years as head football coach at Ithaca College, passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 26, in Ithaca. He was 74.One of college football's most successful coaches, Butterfield coached at Ithaca from 1967 to 1993. He led the Bombers to Division III national championships in 1979, 1988 and 1991 (Ohio State's Woody Hayes is the only other coach to have won national titles in three different decades). His overall record was 206-71-1 with 11 trips to the NCAA playoffs. Butterfield's teams recorded winning seasons in each of his last 23 years and posted a 21-8 mark in NCAA playoff competition. He coached Ithaca to a record seven Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowls (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1988, 1991).He was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame in 1997, into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1975 and into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.Ithaca College's South Hill Field was renamed Butterfield Stadium in 1992; at the time he was one of only three active college football coaches with an on-field facility bearing his name. At the same time, the Philip James Butterfield Scholarship was established in the Ithaca College School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, where Butterfield held the rank of professor of physical education. The scholarship is now presented annually to a junior or senior who exhibits outstanding academic performance and citizenship with preference given to students who plan to pursue teaching careers.Butterfield was named Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) in 1988 and 1991 and earned District I honors from that organization seven times: in 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985 and 1986. Following Ithaca's national championship seasons in 1979, 1988, and 1991, Butterfield was presented the Stan Lomax-Irving T. Marsh Award as Eastern Coach of the Year by the New York Football Writers Association. In 1988 he was named Division III Coach of the Year by Chevrolet. The Ithaca Journal selected Butterfield as its coach of the year in 1974, 1975, and 1985, and Cable Newscenter 7 in Ithaca presented him with the 1988-89 Ithaca Area Sports Personality of the Year Award. During his 27 years as Ithaca's coach, 85 Bombers earned a total of 149 all-American honors.Butterfield was born in Tampa, Fla., and moved to Westboro, Mass. He graduated from Westboro High School in 1945 and entered the Navy following graduation, serving as an aviation machinist mate, third class, for a year and a half.In 1949, after one semester at Florida, Butterfield entered Maine where he became one of the Black Bears' top performers at guard for the next three years. He captained the 1952 team and that same year was selected to the All-Maine and All-Yankee Conference teams. Butterfield earned his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1953 and his master's degree in education in 1958, both from Maine.His first football coaching job was at Arms Academy in Shelburne Falls, Mass., where he posted a two-year record of 11-4. Butterfield returned to Maine in 1956 as line coach, a post he held until 1960. From 1960 until 1967, Butterfield was an assistant at Colgate under Alva Kelley and Hal Lahar.In 1987 Butterfield was elected to an AFCA trustee position, an appointment he filled until his retirement in 1993. Butterfield was succeeded as Ithaca's head coach by Mike Welch, a 1973 Ithaca graduate who earned two letters playing for Butterfield and captained the 1972 team.