Jake Gaither

Biographical details
Born	(1903-04-11)April 11, 1903 Dayton, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	February 18, 1994(1994-02-18) (aged 90) Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.
Playing career
?–1927	Knoxville
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1937–1944	Florida A&M (assistant)
1945–1969	Florida A&M
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1945–1973	Florida A&M
Head coaching record
Overall	204–36–4
Bowls	12–13–1
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1AP small college national (1962) 8black college national (1950, 1952–1954, 1957, 1959, 1961–1962) 20SIAC (1945–1950, 1952–1965) 3SIAC Division I (1967–1969)
Awards
NAIA Coach of the Year (1969) Walter Camp Man of the Year (1974) Amos Alonzo Stagg Award (1975)
College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1975 (profile)

Alonzo Smith "Jake"Gaither (April 11, 1903 – February 18, 1994) was an Americancollege football coach and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach atFlorida A&M University (FAMU) for 25 years, from 1945 to 1969, compiling a record of 204–36–4. His won–loss record is among the best of any college football coach.

Gaither was born in 1903 inDayton, Tennessee. His father was a preacher, and as a youth Gaither expected to also become a preacher. He graduated fromKnoxville College, where he played football as an end in 1927. Gaither's father died around that time, and Gaither became a high school football coach to help support his family. Gaither later completed a master's degree atOhio State University in 1937.

Gaither went to work as an assistant to head coachWilliam M. Bell at Florida A&M College for Negroes (as it was called then) in 1937.^[1][2] The FAMC Rattlers had an undefeated (8–0) season that year, and won their firstblack college football national championship. The school won the national title again in 1942. Bell left to enter military service in 1943. After two years of problems in the football program, Gaither was hired as the head football coach for Florida A&M College in 1945. One story is that the president of the college could not find anyone else to take the job.

Gaither worked very hard to motivate his players. He would say, "I like my boys to be agile, mobile, and hostile." It is reported that he would hide an onion in his handkerchief to work up tears in his pre-game pep talks. He built up an effective recruiting network; in the days of Jim Crow, he had the pick of every good black high school player in Florida. Indeed, by the 1960s did not even bother to recruit players from outside the state. Gaither was dedicated to his job. After retiring, he told his biographer, "I run into so many people who have no deep sense of morals—people who got a price tag on them, who'd sell their soul. I want to find the man who has no price tag on him. I'm not for sale."

Gaither instituted an annual coaching clinic at FAMU in the late 1950s. He recruited major college coaches, includingPaul "Bear" Bryant,Frank Broyles,Darrell Royal,Woody Hayes andAdolph Rupp, among others, to staff the clinics.

Gaither introduced theSplit-T formation in 1963, and it was soon adopted at other colleges. In 1969 Florida A&M defeated theSpartans of theUniversity of Tampa, 34–28, in theSouth's first football game between a white college and ahistorically black college.

Gaither also coachedbasketball andtrack in his early years as football coach. He later became director of athletics and chairman of the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at FAMU. He continued to hold the last two positions after he retired as coach until his retirement from teaching in 1973.

When Gaither retired from coaching in 1969, his Florida A&M teams had a 204–36–4 record, for a .844 winning percentage. Thirty-six players from Gaither's teams wereAll-Americans, and 42 went on to play in theNational Football League (NFL). Gaither was named Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Decade. He was named College Division Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association in 1962, and was voted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1975. He also received theAmos Alonzo Stagg Award that year, and theWalter Camp Man of the Year award in 1974. The Jake Gaither Trophy has been awarded to the best Black collegiate football player each year since 1978. TheJake Gaither Gymnasium is located on the FAMU campus.

Gaither died inTallahassee, Florida in 1994. TheJake Gaither House where he lived is now a cultural center.^[3]

• List of college football career coaching wins leaders

• College Football Hall of Fame profile

• 1903 births
• 1994 deaths
• Florida A&M Rattlers and Lady Rattlers athletic directors
• Florida A&M Rattlers football coaches
• Knoxville Bulldogs football players
• College Football Hall of Fame inductees
• Ohio State University alumni
• People from Dayton, Tennessee
• African-American coaches of American football
• African-American college athletic directors in the United States
• 20th-century African-American sportsmen
• 20th-century American sportsmen

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