Joe Harper (born c. 1936) is an American former college football coach and former player.
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.
[1] 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.