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The Grand Old Man of the Midway

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The Grand Old Man of the Midway "More victories and greater tactical inventiveness than any other coach, plus vital contributions to baseball, swimming and track" is a mere introduction to a man who filled each of his 102 years with unique and noble deeds. The Grand Old Man Of The Midway •Seventy years of dedication to the cient a waiter Stagg was, but as a development of young men through 5'7" 145 pound freshman end, he coaching, the most lifetime football made the first All-America team ever coaching victories, a major univer- selected. A superb athlete, Stagg's sity's football stadium named after collegiate baseball career was equally him, a "Greatest Living American" auspicious. A masterful pitcher, award by the U.S. Chamber of Com- "Lonnie" Stagg hurled Yale to five merce, the first man to be selected to championships, maintaining a life- the National Football Foundation's time 17-3 edge over rival Harvard Hall of Fame as both player and and, in one performance, whiffing 20 coach, all preceded by his selection to Princeton Tigers. this nation's first All-America team in In fact, Stagg was good enough to 1889 conspire to make it nearly im- elicit the astounding offer of $4,200 to possible to know where to begin pitch for the New York Giants. As a when praising Amos Alonzo Stagg. self-proclaimed "invincible amateur," Worse, the above merely scratches Stagg declined the opportunity to the surface of his accomplishments. play professional baseball. But the Unquestionably one of the most in- mammoth amount of money offered ventive minds to ever draw "X"s and spurred one newspaperman to editor- "0"s, Stagg is responsible for so ialize, "So long as a pitcher gets much modern football strategy that $4,200 for six months and a preacher the great Knute Rockne, when asked gets $600 for a year, so long will there where he got his system, fired back, Amos Alonzo Stagg shortly after the end of be good pitching and bad preaching." "from Stagg—all football comes from his coaching career. The lucrative offer didn't swing Stagg." Research shows that to be Stagg into baseball's camp, but his only a slight exaggeration of truth. An unquenchable love for sports and abbreviated list of his major contri- and, in 1906, a fake hand off and a the opportunity it gave him to teach butions is enough to get the point forward pass. This deception worked young men veered him out of Yale Di- across. He invented: the huddle, the so well, Stagg reversed it and insti- vinity School and into the Interna- onside kick; the quick kick; the short tuted the first fake pass topped off by tional YMCA College (later Spring- punt formation; the hand off from a a run, otherwise known as the option field College) in Springfield, Mass., fake kick; the numbering of players; play. Coach Stagg originated that where Lonnie received his first ex- the padded goalposts; the charging wrinkle for a 1908 game with Minne- posure to coaching. sled; the tackling dummy (an old mat- sota and his Maroons lambasted the Reflecting in later years on the tress at first) and wind sprints for confused Gophers 29-0. switch from preaching to teaching, practices; single and double flanker Inflicting the unexpected on a foe Stagg mused, "The coaching profes- pass patterns and most aspects of the is good for an advantage, but Stagg's sion is one of the noblest and farthest modern T formation. teams were also known to be the best reaching in building manhood. No Stagg's designing of the T forma- and hardest drilled in the Big 10. Born man is too good to be an athletic tion's foundations was encouraged by the sixth of eight children to a poor coach for youth." the presence of Walter Eckersall. New Jersey family, Stagg's familiarity During the time Stagg was in Universally accorded the title as one with hard work commenced when he Springfield, John D. Rockefeller was of the two greatest pre-pass quarter- put himself through high school, from building a university in Chicago and backs, (Charley Daly of Harvard is which he graduated in three years. the new school's president was one the other), his talent gave life to After a year's preparation at Phil- of Stagg's old Yale professors, Dr. Stagg's ingenuity. "When Eckersall lips Exeter Academy, Amos entered William Rainey Harper. Harper came to Chicago in 1903," Stagg re- Yale Divinity in 1889. Physically wanted Stagg to head his athletic called, "I started faking and pivoting. unprepared for the drastic New Eng- department and after receiving assur- Then, in 1905 I had him fake, pivot land winters, Stagg eventually col- ances that he could combine the and then run around end." It was the lapsed from malnutrition and the athletic and physical education de- first end sweep by a quarterback. cold. Happily, a friend took charge of partments, Stagg accepted the as- Carrying his innovations further Stagg's recovery and found him a de- signment. down this new path, Stagg initiated cent paying job as a waiter. Stagg's adventures at the young the delayed buck, the man in motion History doesn't record how profi- school included the chores of coach- continued 22t 19t .
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