Amos Alonzo Stagg

Bio

Amos Alonzo Stagg is a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected as both player and coach in 1951. He was born August 16, 1862, in West Orange, New Jersey, and enrolled at Yale as a divinity student. He played five seasons for the Bulldogs and took up football as a sport secondary to baseball. He was an accomplished pitcher receiving offers to play professionally as he led Yale to five championships. He saw little action in his first two seasons, but in 1888 Stagg was a regular on one of the greatest teams of all time. That year Yale won 13 games, out-scoring the opposition 698-0. Besides Stagg, the team featured three other Hall of Fame members, William Corbin, Pudge Heffelfinger and George Woodruff. Entering his final collegiate game against Princeton in 1889, Yale had won 37 consecutive games. In the second half of a scoreless game, Stagg prevented a touchdown by tackling Hall of Famer "Snake" Ames deep in Yale territory. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Princeton later pushed across two scores to defeat Yale 10-0. For his career, Stagg and his teammates posted a 53-2-1 record, and he was chosen a member of the first All-America team in 1889. After his playing career he went on to coach for 54 seasons, winning 314 games at Springfield College, University of Chicago and the College of the Pacific. He invented the batting cage for baseball and the trough for overflow in swimming pools. Stagg died March 17, 1965, at age 102 in Stockton, California.

Career Highlights

• 1889 Consensus All-America