 Faber at Maryland in 1928 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1903-01-13)January 13, 1903 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | January 14, 1994(1994-01-14) (aged 91) Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Lacrosse | |
| 1926–1927 | Maryland |
| Position(s) | Attackman,Out Home |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Lacrosse | |
| 1928–1929 | Maryland |
| 1930–1963 | Maryland (co-HC) |
| Football | |
| 1933–1934 | Maryland (assistant) |
| 1935 | Maryland |
| 1940–1941 | Maryland |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 249–57 (lacrosse) 12–13–4 (football) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Lacrosse 8USILA (1928, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1955, 1956, 1959) 9ACC (1955–1961, 1963, 1965) | |
| Awards | |
| USILA Coach of the Year (1959) | |
John Edgar Faber Jr. (January 13, 1903 – January 14, 1994) was an American microbiologist andcollege football andlacrosse coach at theUniversity of Maryland. Faber served as theMaryland lacrosse coach from 1928 to 1963, during which time he compiled a 249–57 record and secured numerous national and conference championships. Faber was inducted into theNational Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1963. He coached theMaryland football team in 1935 and again, as a co-head coach alongsideAl Heagy and Al Woods, from 1940 to 1941. He compiled a 12–13–4 record in football.
Faber was born inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania on January 13, 1903, and attended Central High School inWashington, D.C.[1] He then went on to college at theUniversity of Maryland, where he played on theMaryland lacrosse team, earningletters in 1926 and 1927,[2] and thebasketball team, earning letters from 1924 to 1927.[3] TheUnited States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) named Faber an honorable mentionAll-American as aninside attackman in 1926 and a third-team All-American at the out home position in 1927.[4]
From the University of Maryland, Faber earned aB.S. in 1926, aM.S. in 1928, and aPh.D. in bacteriology in 1937.[5] In 1945, he was appointed the head of his alma mater's Department of Microbiology, a position he held for 18 years.[6][7] DuringWorld War II, Faber joined theUnited States Army and served from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank ofmajor.[1] He spent three years working at theWalter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.[6]
While teachingbacteriology at Maryland, Faber also held coaching duties.[6] He served as the head coach for the Maryland lacrosse team from 1928 to 1963.[7] During his tenure, Faber's lacrosse teams compiled a 249–57 record[7] and secured eight outright or shared USILA national championships and nineAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championships.[6][8] From 1930 onward, Faber shared coaching duties withAlbert Heagy,[9] with the former running the offense and the latter the defense.[10] In 1936, Faber led Maryland to capture the firstWingate Memorial Trophy, the national championship bestowed by the USILA. The following year, they shared the title withPrinceton.[11] In the inauguralNorth-South Senior All-Star Game in 1940, Faber coached the South team, which lost to the North team coached by Princeton's William F. Logan, 6–5.[12] He also coached all-star teams in 1946 and 1956.[1] In 1955 and 1956, Faber led Maryland to back-to-back 11–0 seasons, with the only close matches coming against period powerhouseNavy, in 1955, and the highly successfulMount Washington Lacrosse Club, 12–11 in 1956.[13] In 1959, Maryland finished with a 10–1 mark as USILA co-champions alongsideArmy andJohns Hopkins, and Faber was named theUSILA Coach of the Year.[14]
Faber also served on the football staff. He became the assistant field coach underCurly Byrd in 1933.[15] Byrd was able to devote less time to the team because of his duties as university vice president.[15][16] In 1930, Faber enticedBosey Berger, Maryland's first basketball All-American, to join the football team with the promise of free late night dining hall meals.[17] In1935, Faber took over as head coach when Byrd was promoted touniversity president. Faber continued to employ his predecessor's pass-oriented "Byrd system" and hiredRichmond head coachFrank Dobson as an assistant.[18] Despite facing "an almost suicidal schedule",[19] Faber's veteran team led by backBill Guckeyson compiled a 7–2–2 record to finish in third place in theSouthern Conference.[20] Faber was succeeded as head football coach by Dobson in 1936, but in turn, replaced him as a co-head coach alongside Al Heagy and Al Woods in 1940 and 1941.[20] Those teams finished with 2–6–1 and 3–5–1 records, respectively, to bring Faber's combined football coaching record to 12–13–4.[20] The coaching trio was subsequently replaced byClark Shaughnessy, who two seasons prior had orchestrated aremarkable one-year turnaround atStanford using a revolutionary version of theT formation.[21] Faber also spent time as an assistant basketball coach at Maryland,[22] and in 1932, filled in for head coachBurton Shipley who had fallen ill.[23] Faber served two terms as a president of the ACC.[6]
He retired from the University of Maryland in 1963 but continued teaching Epidemiology into the 1970s. Faber was inducted into theNational Lacrosse Hall of Fame that year and into theUniversity of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983.[24] He survived his wife of 62 years, Olyure née Hammack, who died in 1992. Faber died ofpneumonia two years later on January 14, 1994, and was interred atArlington National Cemetery.[6] The University of Maryland Alumni Association Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Faber in 2000.[8] In 2003, Maryland established the Faber Memorial Men's Lacrosse Scholarship Endowment Fund through the Maryland Educational Foundation, Inc. to award scholarships to men's lacrosse players.[25]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland Terrapins(Southern Conference)(1935) | |||||||||
| 1935 | Maryland | 7–2–2 | 3–1–1 | 3rd | |||||
| Maryland Terrapins(Southern Conference)(1940–1941) | |||||||||
| 1940 | Maryland | 2–6–1 | 0–1–1 | 12th | |||||
| 1941 | Maryland | 3–5–1 | 1–2 | T–11th | |||||
| Maryland: | 12–13–4 | 4–4–2 | |||||||
| Total: | 12–13–4 | ||||||||
