Amos Alonzo Stagg

Amos Alonzo Stagg

Stagg in 1906
Sport(s) Football, basketball, baseball, track and field
Biographical details
Born (1862-08-16)August 16, 1862
West Orange, New Jersey
Died March 17, 1965(1965-03-17) (aged 102)
Stockton, California
Playing career
Football
1885–1889 Yale
1892 Chicago
Position(s) End, halfback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1890–1891 Williston Seminary (MA)
1890–1891 YMCA (MA)
1892–1932 Chicago
1933–1946 Pacific (CA)
1947–1952 Susquehanna (associate HC)
1953–1958 Stockton College (ST)
Basketball
1920–1921 Chicago
Baseball
1893–1905 Chicago
1907–1913 Chicago
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1892–1933 Chicago
Head coaching record
Overall 314–199–35 (college football)
14–6 (basketball)
266–158–3 (baseball)
Bowls 0–1

Statistics

Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Football
2 National (1905, 1913)
7 Big Ten (1899, 1905, 1907–1908, 1913, 1922, 1924)
5 NCAC (1936, 1938, 1940–1942)
Awards
Football
All-American, 1889
AFCA Coach of the Year (1943)
College Football Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1951 (profile)
Basketball Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1959 (profile)

Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (now called Springfield College) (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946), compiling a career college football record of 314–199–35. His Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 have been recognized as national champions. He was also the head basketball coach for one season at the University of Chicago (1920–1921), and the head baseball coach there for 19 seasons (1893–1905, 1907–1913).

At the University of Chicago, Stagg also instituted an annual prep basketball tournament and track meet. Both drew the top high school teams and athletes from around the United States.

Stagg played football as an end at Yale University and was selected to the first College Football All-America Team in 1889. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach in the charter class of 1951 and was the only individual honored in both roles until the 1990s. Influential in other sports, Stagg developed basketball as a five-player sport. This 5 man concept allowed his 10 (later 11) man football team the ability to compete with each other and to stay in shape over the winter. Stagg was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in its first group of inductees in 1959.

Stagg also forged a bond between sports and religious faith early on in his career that remained important to him for the rest of his life.[1]

Playing career

Stagg (far left) on Yale's 1888 team

Stagg was born in West Orange, New Jersey and attended Phillips Exeter Academy.[2] Playing at Yale University, where he was a divinity student, and a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and the secret Skull and Bones society,[3][4] he was an end on the first All-America team, selected in 1889.

A pitcher on his college baseball team, he declined an opportunity to play professional baseball but nonetheless influenced the game through his invention of the batting cage.[5]

He went on to earn an MPE from the Young Men's Christian Training School, now known as Springfield College. On March 11, 1892, Stagg, still an instructor at the YMCA School, played in the first public game of basketball at the Springfield YMCA. A crowd of 200 watched as the student team beat the faculty, 5–1. Stagg scored the only basket for the losing side. He popularized basketball teams having five players.[6]

Coaching career

Stagg in 1899

Stagg became the first paid football coach at Williston Seminary, a secondary school, in 1890. This was also Stagg's first time receiving pay to coach football. He would coach there one day a week while also coaching full-time at Springfield College.[7] Stagg then coached at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932. University president Robert Maynard Hutchins forced out the septuagenarian Stagg, who he felt was too old to continue coaching.[8][9] At age 70, Stagg moved on to the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he coached from 1933 to 1946. In 1946 Stagg was asked to resign as football coach at Pacific.[10] During his career, he developed numerous basic tactics for the game (including the man in motion and the lateral pass), as well as some equipment. Stagg played himself in the movie Knute Rockne, All American released in 1940. From 1947 to 1952 he served as co-coach with his son, Amos Jr., at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. In 1924, he served as a coach with the U.S. Olympic Track and Field team in Paris. Stagg's final job was as kicking coach at the local junior college in Stockton, California, which was then known as Stockton College. "The Grand Old Man of Football" retired from Stockton College at the age of 96 and later died in Stockton, California, at 102 years old.

Family

Stagg was married to the former Stella Robertson on September 10, 1894. The couple had three children: two sons, Amos Jr. and Paul, and a daughter, Ruth. Both sons played for the elder Stagg as quarterbacks at the University of Chicago and each later coached college football. In 1952, Barbara Stagg, Amos' granddaughter, started coaching the high school girls' basketball team for Slatington High School in Slatington, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Two high schools in the United States, one in Palos Hills, Illinois and the other in Stockton, California, and an elementary school in Chicago, Illinois, are named after Stagg.[11][12][13] The NCAA Division III National Football Championship game, played in Salem, Virginia, is named the Stagg Bowl after him.[5] The athletic stadium at Springfield College is named Stagg Field.[14] The football field at Susquehanna University is named Amos Alonzo Stagg Field in honor of both Stagg Sr. and Jr.[15] Stagg was the namesake of the University of Chicago's old Stagg Field where, on December 2, 1942, a team of Manhattan Project scientists led by Enrico Fermi created the world's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under the west stands of the abandoned stadium.[16] At University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, one of the campus streets is known as Stagg Way and Pacific Memorial Stadium, the school's football and soccer stadium, was renamed Amos Alonzo Stagg Memorial Stadium on October 15, 1988.[17] Phillips Exeter Academy also has a field named for him and a statue.[18] A field in West Orange, New Jersey on Saint Cloud Avenue is also named for him.[19] The Amos Alonzo Stagg Award is awarded to the "individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football".[20] The winner of the Big Ten Football Championship Game, started in 2011, receives the Stagg Championship Trophy, named in his honor.[21]

At the College of William and Mary, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Society was organized during 1979–1980 by students and faculty opposed to a plan by the institution’s Board of Visitors to move William and Mary back into big-time college football several decades after a scandal there involving grade changes for football players. The Society was loosely organized, but successful in combating, among other plans, a major expansion of the William and Mary football stadium.

Collections of Amos Alonzo Stagg's papers are held at the University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center and at the University of the Pacific Library, Holt Atherton Department of Special Collections.[22][23] The Alonzo Stagg 50/20 Hike goes through Arlington, Virginia, Washington, DC and Maryland.[24]

The Stagg Tree, a giant sequoia in the Alder Creek Grove and the fifth largest tree in the world, is named in honor of Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl

The Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, otherwise known as the NCAA Division III Football Championship Game since 1973, is competed annually as the final game of the NCAA Division III Football Tournament. The Stagg Bowl can be traced back to 1969, prior to the inception of the D-III national championship. At that time—from 1969 to 1973—the Stagg Bowl was one of two bowls competed at the College Division level—the Knute Rockne Bowl and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. In 1973, the NCAA instituted the D-III national championship, and the Stagg Bowl was adopted as the moniker for that game.

The first 10 Stagg Bowls were played in Phenix City, Ala., from 1973-1982. Wittenberg University (Ohio) won the inaugural game via a 41-0 result over Juniata College (Pa.). The game moved to Kings Island, Ohio, for the 1983 and 1984 editions, with Augustana College (Ill.) winning the first two of its four straight NCAA titles.

The Stagg Bowl returned to Phenix City for five more years, before spending three seasons in Bradenton, Fla.

In 1993, the Stagg Bowl moved to Salem, Va., where it has been competed each year since (20 games after the 2012 championship). The University of Mount Union (formally Mount Union College) won the first of its NCAA Division III-record 12 football national championships in 1993.[25]

Innovations in football

The following is a list of innovations Stagg introduced to American football. Where known, the year of its first use is annotated in parentheses. Stagg is noted as a 'contributor' if he was one of a group of individuals responsible for a given innovation.

Head coaching record

College football

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs AP#
YMCA (Independent) (1890–1891)
1890 YMCA 5–3
1891 YMCA 5–8–1
YMCA: 10–11–1
Chicago Maroons (Independent) (1892–1895)
1892 Chicago 1–4–2
1893 Chicago 6–4–2
1894 Chicago 11–7–1
1895 Chicago 7–3
Chicago Maroons (Big Ten Conference) (1896–1932)
1896 Chicago 11–2–1 3–2 4th
1897 Chicago 8–1 3–1 2nd
1898 Chicago 9–2–1 3–1 2nd
1899 Chicago 12–0–2 4–0 1st
1900 Chicago 7–5–1 2–3–1 6th
1901 Chicago 5–5–2 0–4–1 9th
1902 Chicago 11–1 5–1 2nd
1903 Chicago 10–2–1 4–1 4th
1904 Chicago 8–1–1 5–1–1 3rd
1905 Chicago 11–0 7–0 1st
1906 Chicago 4–1 3–1 4th
1907 Chicago 4–1 4–0 1st
1908 Chicago 5–0–1 5–0 1st
1909 Chicago 4–1–2 4–1–1 2nd
1910 Chicago 2–5 2–4 7th
1911 Chicago 6–1 5–1 2nd
1912 Chicago 6–1 6–1 2nd
1913 Chicago 7–0 7–0 1st
1914 Chicago 4–2–1 4–2–1 7th
1915 Chicago 5–2 4–2 3rd
1916 Chicago 3–4 3–3 5th
1917 Chicago 3–2–1 2–2–1 5th
1918 Chicago 0–6 0–5 10th
1919 Chicago 5–2 4–2 3rd
1920 Chicago 3–4 2–4 8th
1921 Chicago 6–1 4–1 2nd
1922 Chicago 5–1–1 4–0–1 1st
1923 Chicago 7–1 7–1 3rd
1924 Chicago 4–1–3 3–0–3 1st
1925 Chicago 3–4–1 2–2–1 7th
1926 Chicago 2–6 0–5 10th
1927 Chicago 4–4 4–4 5th
1928 Chicago 2–7 0–5 10th
1929 Chicago 7–3 1–3 7th
1930 Chicago 2–5–2 0–4 10th
1931 Chicago 2–6–1 1–4 8th
1932 Chicago 3–4–1 1–4 8th
Chicago: 244–111–27 115–74–12
Pacific Tigers (Northern California Athletic Conference) (1933–1946)
1933 Pacific 5–5
1934 Pacific 4–5
1935 Pacific 5–4–1
1936 Pacific 5–4–1 4–0 1st
1937 Pacific 3–5–2
1938 Pacific 7–3 4–0 1st
1939 Pacific 6–6–1
1940 Pacific 4–5 2–0 1st
1941 Pacific 4–7 3–0 1st
1942 Pacific 2–6–1 2–0 1st
1943 Pacific 7–2 19
1944 Pacific 3–8
1945 Pacific 0–10–1
1946 Pacific 5–7 L Optimist
Pacific: 60–77–7
Total: 314–199–35
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title
#Rankings from final AP Poll.

College basketball

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Chicago Maroons (Big Ten Conference) (1920–1921)
1920–21 Chicago 14–6 6–6 8th
Chicago: 14–6 6–6
Total: 14–6

See also

References

  1. ↑ The University of Chicago Faculty, A Centennial View
  2. ↑ Stagg Dies at 102, New York Times March 18, 1965
  3. ↑ Alexandra Robbins, Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power, Little, Brown and Company, 2002, page 126
  4. ↑ Robin Lester. He also received a MPE from Young Men's Christian Training School (now known as Springfield College)in 1891. Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-time Football at Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1995, page 9.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Steve Wulf, The Mighty Book of Sports Knowledge, p. 24, Random House, Inc., 2009.
  6. ↑ Amos Alonzo Stagg
  7. ↑ The unreconstructed amateur: a pictorial biography of Amos Alonzo Stagg, Bob Considine, Amos Alonzo Stagg Foundation, 1962
  8. ↑ Jeff Davis, Papa Bear, p. 135, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006, ISBN 0-07-147741-1.
  9. ↑ AP (October 14, 1932). "STAGG IS RETIRED AS CHICAGO COACH; University Invokes Age Rule of 70 to Relieve Him of All Active Duties. MOVE IN EFFECT NEXT JUNE Veteran's 40-Year Tenure Ends – Protesting Action, He May Decline a New Post. METCALF HIS SUCCESSOR Iowa State Official Named Athletic Director – Page Likely to Be Football Mentor.". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
  10. ↑ "COP, Stagg Still Confer". San Francisco: Lodi News-Sentinel. December 2, 1946. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  11. ↑ Chicago Public Schools: Stagg (Amos Alonzo Stagg Elementary School)
  12. ↑ Amos Alonzo Stagg High School
  13. ↑ Welcome to Stagg High School
  14. ↑ "Stagg Field". Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Amos Alonzo Stagg Field at Nicholas A. Lopardo Stadium". Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  16. ↑ "The Manhattan Project". Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Stagg Memorial Stadium". Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  18. ↑ "Athletic and Outdoor Facilities". Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  19. ↑ West Orange Recreation
  20. 1 2 Amos Alonzo Stagg Award
  21. ↑ Associated Press (November 14, 2011). "Big Ten removes Joe Paterno's name from championship trophy". The Detroit News.
  22. ↑ "Guide to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Papers 1866-1964". Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  23. ↑ "Amos Alonzo Stagg Collection" (PDF). Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  24. ↑ BSA Troop 111 Arlington, Virginia
  25. ↑ NCAA Division III Football Championship record book
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Edwin Pope. Football's Greatest Coaches. pp. 231–232.
  27. ↑ Tom Perrin, Football: A College History, p. 84, McFarland, 1987.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Allison Danzig, The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches, p. 175, Prentice-Hall, 1956.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 College Football: The Coach, Time magazine, March 26, 1965.
  30. 1 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=5pPYAODf6ZAC&pg=PA204&lpg=PA204#v=onepage&q&f=false
  31. ↑ "Germany Schulz". College Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
  32. ↑ Amos Alonzo Stagg, Touchdown!: As told by Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg to Wesley Winans Stout, p. 109, Longmans, Green and Co., 1927.
  33. ↑ Richard Whittingham, Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football, p. 40, Simon and Schuster, 2001.
  34. 1 2 Robin Lester, Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago, p. 251, University of Illinois Press, 1999.
  35. 1 2 3 Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Volume 44, p. xviii, American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1973.

External links

Amos Alonzo Stagg at Find a Grave

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