Mal Stevens

Bio

Marvin "Mal" Stevens achieved great heights in football and medicine. He was a quarterback at Washburn College three years 1919-21 and played halfback one year for Yale in 1923. In his time at Washburn College, Stevens won 15 letters, three each in football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and track. The 1923 Yale team went 8-0 and out-scored its opponents 230-38. The stars were Stevens at halfback, Bill Mallory at fullback, and Century Milstead at tackle. All three were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Grantland Rice gave him his greatest football tribute, saying Stevens was "in 1923 one of the greatest running backs I ever saw." He served Yale as assistant coach 1924-27 and head coach 1928-32, freshman coach in 1933. He was head coach at New York University 1938-41 and head coach of a pro team, the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-America Conference, in 1946. He obtained his medical degree at Yale. During the years he coached at Yale and New York University, he taught orthopedic surgery at the same schools. He was 28 when he became Yale head coach in 1928, making him the youngest head coach in the nation at a major school. He was president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1931 and, at age 31, the youngest president in association history. He was a bone specialist, served 13 years as a director of the Sister Kenny Foundation for Polio, was a founder of the Aspen (Colorado) Medical Center, and chief medical officer of the New York Boxing and Wrestling Commission.

Career Highlights

• 1923 Second Team All-America