RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A former University of Maine associate head coach will be leading the way in 2009 when Old Dominion fields a football team for the first time since 1940, the Norfolk school said Friday.

Bobby Wilder, once the Black Bears’ all-time leading passer, will be introduced to the media on Monday as the Monarch’s head coach, Old Dominion athletic director Jim Jarrett said in a statement announcing the hiring.

Wilder served on Maine’s coaching staff for the last 17 years. He takes over a program being built from the ground up.

“All of the pieces of the puzzle are being put in place to try to be a perennial top 10 program in the country,” he said in an interview. “They’ve done a tremendous amount of research into the best I-AA programs.”

Old Dominion announced in late May that it would restore football and would compete in the I-AA Colonial Athletic Association.

Wilder’s ethical approach to athletics, his congenial personality and his emphasis on academic achievement make him an “outstanding” appointment, ODU President Roseann Runte said.

Jarrett said in the statement that Wilder was a big factor in Maine’s football success. Wilder was offensive coordinator in 2000 and 2001 when the Black Bears twice won the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Wilder, 42, will be the second coach in Old Dominion’s history. The late Tommy Scott served as coach from 1930 to 1940.

A search committee read through more than 70 applications and interviewed four candidates, including University of Virginia defensive coordinator Mike London, said John Broderick, the university’s vice president for institutional advancement.

On Thursday, London wrote in an e-mailed statement to reporters that he continues to be committed to the Cavaliers’ football program.

ODU is using contributions of nearly $6 million from alumni, students and community leaders and has employed two veteran football coaches – former Navy and Virginia coach George Welsh and former North Carolina State coach Dick Sheridan – to serve as consultants as it builds its program.

Sheridan served as a consultant at Coastal Carolina when they began football five years ago.

The Monarchs will play home games at Foreman Field, a 20,000-seat stadium that will get upgraded and have suites built in one end zone.

The artificial turf also will be replaced by either grass or a newer synthetic surface, and the field hockey and lacrosse programs that have called the field home will move to a new stadium to be built nearby.

The drive to add football started with a request from the student body, and continued with similar appeals from the alumni and then a unanimous endorsement from the board of visitors last year.