Hugo Bezdek

Bio

Born in Bohemia, Hugo Bezdek came to this country at the age of five. He played fullback at the University of Chicago and was third team All-America in 1905. He played second base on the college baseball team. He was the football coach at Oregon in 1906, Arkansas 1908-12, Oregon again 1913-17, and Penn State 1918-29. He was Penn State baseball coach 1920-30 and director of athletics 1930-36. In 1937-38 he coached the Cleveland Rams. And in 1949 he went back to college coaching for one year at Delaware Valley. His college coaching record was 127-58-16. He also coached the Mare Island (CA) Marines after the college season ended in 1917. Bezdek was in the Rose Bowl three times -with the 1916 Oregon team, 1917 Mare Island, and 1922 Penn State. He managed a baseball team, Pittsburgh Pirates, 1917-19, doing this job in the summer between his football coaching assignments in the fall. The Pirates hadn't had a winning record in five years, but Bezdek brought them to fourth place. His Penn State football teams in 1919-22 went 30 straight games undefeated (3 ties). His best players at Penn State included Harry Wilson, Bob Higgins, and Glenn Killinger.