 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1913-02-24)February 24, 1913 Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 19, 2006(2006-01-19) (aged 92) Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1930s | Ithaca |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| ?–1948 | Hopewell HS (VA) |
| 1949–1952 | VMI |
| 1953–1958 | Florida State |
| 1959–1965 | Maryland |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 89–80–3 (college) |
| Bowls | 0–2 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 1SoCon (1951) | |
Thomas N. Nugent (February 24, 1913 – January 19, 2006) was an Americancollege football coach and innovator,sportscaster,public relations man. He served as the head football coach at theVirginia Military Institute,Florida State University, and theUniversity of Maryland. His career record was 89–80–3. Nugent is credited with the development of theI formation.
Nugent, a native ofLawrence, Massachusetts, attendedIthaca College inupstate New York, where he played baseball, basketball, football, and track, and earned tenvarsity letters.[1] He graduated from Ithaca in 1936.[2]
DuringWorld War II, Nugent served in theUnited States Army Air Corps and attained the rank of captain.[1] He worked as a fitness instructor for deploying officers, and later, as the director of entertainment of a military installation inMissouri.[1]
Nugent began his football coaching career at theinterscholastic level inVirginia.[1] In January 1949, while coaching atHopewell High School, he was hired by theVirginia Military Institute to replace head coachSlick Morton who had resigned to take over atMississippi State.[3]
In his first game as a collegiate coach,William & Mary routed VMI, 54–6. The Indians' head coach,Rube McCray, said he would never lose to a former high school coach.[4] To counteract William & Mary's largedefensive line andlinebacker corps, Nugent began developing theI formation, which he debuted the following year in 1950.[4] VMI beat William & Mary, 28–23 and upset 28-point favoriteGeorgia Tech, 14–13.[4] The Keydets posted over 400 offensive yards in both contests.[4] The new formation's success promptedNotre Dame head coachFrank Leahy to send two assistant coaches to observe VMI's spring practice the following year.[4] In the second quarter of the 1951 season opener againstIndiana, Notre Dame used the I formation to score fourtouchdowns.[4] Nugent began giving coaching clinics on the I formation, and in 1961,John McKay replaced hispro T with the I atSouthern California.[4] McKay's success with the formation the following season prompted more teams to adopt it around the country.[4] The I formation's invention is occasionally misattributed to McKay or Leahy, to which Nugent responded, "It's something that's long been misunderstood ... But all you have to do is look it up."[4]
Before the 1951 season, VMI was said to have "the finest assortment of material sinceBosh Pritchard andJoe Muha."[5] The Keydets finished 7–3 for a share of theSouthern Conference co-championship.[6] In January 1952, theWashington State University was reportedly interested in hiring Nugent as its head coach.[7]
Nugent took over as head coach atFlorida State University in 1953, and brought with him the I formation.[4] He said, "People were very skeptical at first. They said it would never work. But it didn't take long to realize we were onto something big."[4] The Florida State football program was less than a decade old, and the previous season's team had only managed one win.[8]
In 1954, Florida State finished with an 8–3 record and earned an invitation to the1955 Sun Bowl, the school's firstpostseason game onNew Year's Day. They were defeated byTexas Western, 47–20.[1] During his last season at FSU in 1958, Nugent led the Seminoles to a 7–3 record and earned an invitation to playOklahoma State in the1958 Bluegrass Bowl, where they were defeated, 15–6.[1] 1958 was also the first year that Florida State played in-state rivalFlorida.[1] Setting up the match-up required years of haggling and negotiations between the schools and with his counterpart, Floridaathletic director and head coachBob Woodruff, about whom Nugent said, "It seems he wants us to promise everything but lose the game."[8]
During his tenure at Florida State, Nugent served as athletic director and coachedESPN analystLee Corso and actorBurt Reynolds.[9] Reynolds said, "He put FSU on the map in the early years."[1] His overall record at Florida State was 34–28–1.[10]
At the first practice before the 1959 season, Nugent addressed his team, "Hi, I'm Tom Nugent and I hateWest Virginia."[11] The Mountaineers were Maryland's first opponent of the season, and Nugent guided the Terrapins to a 27–7 victory in that game.[11]
In 1961, Nugent's Maryland team became the first college football program in the nation to put players' names on the back of theirjerseys.[12] That season, he led the Terrapins to the best season of his tenure and finished with a 7–3 record.[11] A highlight of the season was the 21–17 defeat ofPenn State, the only Maryland victory of theseries until 2014.[11] The Terrapins also defeated seventh-rankedSyracuse, 22–21.[13]
Nugent amassed a 36–34 record during his tenure at Maryland.[10] He remained the last Maryland coach to win his inaugural game with the team untilRalph Friedgen matched that feat in 2001.[14]
Under Nugent, in 1962, Maryland integrated its football team afterDarryl Hill caught the eye of Maryland assistant coach Lee Corso, who had been encouraged by Nugent to find a black athlete to play for his team. Hill became not only the first African-American football player at Maryland but the first in the Atlantic Coast Conference and at any college or university in "the old South."
Upon the conclusion of his coaching career, Nugent worked as asports broadcaster. In the late 1960s, he spent four years withABCaffiliateWPLG inMiami.[1] In the 1970s, he worked inpublic relations, including at theFlorida Institute of Technology inMelbourne, Florida.[1]
In 1970, Ithaca College inducted Nugent into its Ithaca Sports Hall of Fame.[2] The Florida State University Hall of Fame inducted Nugent in 1983.[15] He has also been inducted into theFlorida Sports Hall of Fame.[16] In 1998, he received the Ithaca College Alumni Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.[17] TheNational Football Foundation bestowed upon him the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award in 2000.[18]
Nugent was married to wife Peg in 1941, and the couple had five sons and four daughters. He survived his wife, who died in 2002.[1] He retired, first toIndian Harbor Beach, Florida in the 1980s,[4] and then the Westminster Oaks Health Center inTallahassee, Florida, where he died ofcongestive heart failure on January 19, 2006.[8]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMI Keydets(Southern Conference)(1949–1952) | |||||||||
| 1949 | VMI | 3–5–1 | 3–2–1 | 6th | |||||
| 1950 | VMI | 6–4 | 5–1 | 3rd | |||||
| 1951 | VMI | 7–3 | 5–0 | T–1st | |||||
| 1952 | VMI | 3–6–1 | 2–3–1 | 9th | |||||
| VMI: | 19–18–2 | 15–6–1 | |||||||
| Florida State Seminoles(Independent)(1953–1958) | |||||||||
| 1953 | Florida State | 5–5 | |||||||
| 1954 | Florida State | 8–4 | LSun | ||||||
| 1955 | Florida State | 5–5 | |||||||
| 1956 | Florida State | 5–4–1 | |||||||
| 1957 | Florida State | 4–6 | |||||||
| 1958 | Florida State | 7–4 | LBluegrass | ||||||
| Florida State: | 34–28–1 | ||||||||
| Maryland Terrapins(Atlantic Coast Conference)(1959–1965) | |||||||||
| 1959 | Maryland | 5–5 | 4–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1960 | Maryland | 6–4 | 5–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1961 | Maryland | 7–3 | 3–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| 1962 | Maryland | 6–4 | 5–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1963 | Maryland | 3–7 | 2–5 | 5th | |||||
| 1964 | Maryland | 5–5 | 4–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| 1965 | Maryland | 4–6 | 3–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| Maryland: | 36–34 | 26–20 | |||||||
| Total: | 89–80–3 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
