 McGugin cropped from 1903 Michigan Wolverines team photograph | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1879-07-29)July 29, 1879 nearTingley, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | January 23, 1936(1936-01-23) (aged 56) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1898–1900 | Drake |
| 1901–1902 | Michigan |
| Positions | Guard,tackle,punter |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1903 | Michigan (assistant) |
| 1904–1917 | Vanderbilt |
| 1919–1934 | Vanderbilt |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1934–1936 | Vanderbilt |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 197–55–19 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 9SIAA (1904–1907, 1910–1912, 1915, 1921) 2SoCon (1922–1923) | |
| Awards | |
| First-teamAll-Western (1902) | |
| College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1951 (profile) | |
Daniel Earle McGugin (July 29, 1879 – January 23, 1936) was an Americancollege football player and coach, as well as alawyer. He served as the head football coach atVanderbilt University inNashville, Tennessee from 1904 to 1917 and again from 1919 to 1934, compiling a record of 197–55–19. He is the winningest head coach in the history of the university. McGugin was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951 as part of its inaugural class. The Vanderbilt athletics office building, the McGugin Center, bears his name.
McGugin played football for Drake and for the"Point-a-Minute" Michigan teams. He was the brother-in-law ofUniversity of Michigan coachFielding H. Yost.
McGugin was born in July 1879 on a farm nearTingley, Iowa. He was the son of Benjamin Franklin McGugin (1843–1925) and Melissa (Critchfield) McGugin (1845–1915). He was of Scottish and Irish descent.[1]
McGugin saw thebaton twirling skills ofW. W. Wharton in Tingley for a Sunday evening church service one day in 1896 and was intrigued. Wharton,Drake University's first football coach, suggested he play football instead. "Come to Drake University", Wharton suggested, "and we'll make you as fine atackle as there is."[2]
McGugin enrolled at Drake University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901. He played football atDrake for two years at theguard and tackle positions and "was considered one of the best players that Drake ever had."[3] After one victory he purchased a small brass cannon and fired it at regular fifteen-minute intervals, nodding politely to neighbors'Sabbath complaints and merrily blasting away.[4]
After graduating from Drake, McGugin enrolled in law school at theUniversity of Michigan. While there, McGugin played college football forFielding H. Yost. He was a player on Michigan's"Point-a-Minute" teams that outscored their opponents, 1,211 to 12 in1901 and1902, and served as Yost's assistant coach at Michigan in1903. He was selectedAll-Western in 1902.[5] A profile of McGugin in the 1903 University of Michigan yearbook noted
McGugin is the lightest guard that Michigan has had in the last ten years, but he has not met his match during the past two seasons. ... As a guard he is careful yet nervy. He gets the jump on his opponents and keeps the advantage. Although a hard player he goes into each scrimmage with as much composure as if he were walking along the campus. McGugin, although good in every department of his position, has two qualities that are pre-eminent: namely, makinginterference and openingholes.[Willie] Heston has been especially fortunate this year in having a good interference, and part of that interference has been McGugin.[3]
McGugin was married to Virginia Louise Fite on December 6, 1905, in Detroit, Michigan. His former coach, Fielding Yost, was married to Eunice Fite, making McGugin and Yost brothers-in-law. Yost was best man at McGugin's wedding.[6]
After the last game of the 1902 season, Vanderbilt head coachWalter H. Watkins announced his resignation. Vanderbilt made an effort to secure the services of McGugin's teammate at Michigan,Neil Snow, who was theUniversity of Nashville (Peabody) football coach.[7] Snow resigned from Nashville never to coach again, accepting a construction position in New York.[8] Vanderbilt was then coached byJames H. Henry for one season in 1903.
In 1904, McGugin wrote toVanderbilt University asking for its head coaching position, and was hired at a salary of $850 per year plus board.[9] McGugin had also written toWestern Reserve, and was prepared to accept the job there when he received the telegram saying he received the Vanderbilt job.[10] Despite Western Reserve offering $1,000, McGugin preferred the chance to see the South.[4][n 1]
McGugin remained the head football coach for theVanderbilt Commodores from1904 to1917 and from1919 to1934. During his tenures, theVanderbilt Commodores compiled a 197–55–19 record, had a .762 winning percentage, and won 11 conference titles. He had numerous intersectional triumphs: defeating theCarlisle Indians in1906, and tying theNavy Midshipmen in1907, theYale Bulldogs in1910, and theMichigan Wolverines in1922. The Vanderbilt athletics office building, the McGugin Center, bears his name. McGugin was also named to the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class.[12]
McGugin used his mentor Yost'sshort punt formation.[13] In his first career game, McGugin's team defeatedMississippi A&M, 61–0. He went on to win his next two games by 60 points as well, againstGeorgetown 66–0 and againstMississippi 69–0. "The whole South read that 69–0 score and gasped."[14] He remains the only coach inNCAA history to win his first three games by 60 points.[15] He also won each of his first 11 games by more than 20 points. Vanderbilt outscored their opponents 474–4 during his first year.The1905 team suffered its only loss to McGugin's former team, Michigan. Vanderbilt crushed a strongSewanee squad 68–4. One publication claims "The first scouting done in the South was in 1905, when Dan McGugin and CaptainInnis Brown, of Vanderbilt went toAtlanta to see Sewanee playGeorgia Tech."[16]
In 1906 (the first year of the legalforward pass andonside kick) his team defeated Carlisle, had a third-teamWalter CampAll-American inOwsley Manier (the South's first),[17] and were for some writers the entireAll-Southern eleven.[18] McGugin had his team practice the pass by playingbaseball with a football.[19]
The next season Vanderbilt tied Navy and met rivalSewanee, in a battle of the unbeaten for the mythical crown of the South, and won using atrickdouble-passplay. Sewanee led 12–11 with twelve minutes to play. At McGugin's signal, the Commodores went into a freakishformation in whichStein Stone remained at center but all the other playersshifted to his left.[20] Quarterback Hugh Potts took thesnap andlateraled the ball toVaughn Blake, who lateraled it across toBob Blake, who had lined up deep in punt formation, as Stone ran down the field.[20] Blake completed a 35-yard pass to Stone who was inside the 5-yard line.[21][22]Honus Craig ran it in to win the game.[23] It was cited by journalistGrantland Rice as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.[24]
At the end of the 1907 season, there was some worry Yost might retire at Michigan, and McGugin would replace him.[25] Instead, McGugin signed a five-year contract with Vanderbilt, and established his law practice in town.[26]
The1908 squad was hampered by a wealth of sophomores which McGugin, with the help of halfbackRay Morrison, led to a 7–2–1 record.[27] The1909 team lost toOhio State andSewanee.
In 1910, Vanderbilt's only blemish was fighting defending national champion Yale toa scoreless tie. Team captainBill Neely, recalling the tie with Yale said: "The score tells the story a good deal better than I can. All I want to say is that I never saw a football team fight any harder at every point than Vanderbilt fought today –line,ends, andbackfield. We went in to give Yale the best we had and I think we about did it."[28] The team was led by third-team Walter Camp All-American guardWill Metzger,[29] and piloted by Morrison.
TheAtlanta Constitution voted the1911 team'sbackfield the best in the South.[13] It consisted of:Lew Hardage,Wilson Collins,Ammie Sikes, and Ray Morrison. The team's only blemish was a one-point loss toMichigan. The1912 team led the nation in scoring by margin of victory and lost only to national championHarvard, though it did suffer a tie withAuburn, thenext season's SIAA champion.[30]
The 1913 team went 5–3, losing toMichigan,Virginia, andAuburn, including McGugin's worst loss to Michigan, 33–2. Michigan used severalforward passes.[31]1914 was McGugin's first and only losing season.
After his first losing season, McGugin had only ten players with experience returning. Despite this, McGugin's1915 team bore the moniker "point-a-minute" like his old teams at Michigan, scoring 514 points in 510 minutes of play.[32] The team was built around 130 pound junior quarterbackIrby "Rabbit" Curry. In the line was sophomore tackleJosh Cody, who made Walter Camp's third-team All-America.[33][34]
In1916, Vanderbilt was upset by rivalTennessee for its only loss, and the team beatVirginia for the first time.[35] Curry was selected third-team All-America by Walter Camp.[36] The1917 season featured Vanderbilt's worst-ever loss, 83–0 toGeorgia Tech.[37] McGugin never stopped keeping his men "up." Before theAlabama game the following week, he shouted to reserve fullback Top Richardson to "hit hard on every play." "Yes, sir!" Richardson replied, "I'll knock hell out of anyone who comes near this bench!"[38]
McGugin took time off from coaching to work in the mining business during the First World War. On a draft registration card completed in 1918, McGugin stated that he was the president of the Kensee Mining Company inMarion, Kentucky.[39] On August 10, 1918, while on protection patrol, Rabbit Curry was killed in an aerial combat overPerles, France.[40][41] After learning about Curry's death McGugin wired this telegram toThe Tennessean
During the four years of my intimate association with Irby Curry, I never heard him utter a word his mother might not hear and approve. A game sportsman and scholar, truly he was gentle as adove. He had a lion's heart, and now a hero's death. Poor Little Rabbit! How he pulls at the heart-strings of all of us who knew him and therefore honored and loved him tenderly.[42]
For many years after Curry's death, McGugin had three photographs displayed over his desk. The three pictures were ofAbraham Lincoln,Robert E. Lee, and Curry.[43] McGugin readmilitary history, and before a tough game enjoyed reading about Lee's strategies.[44]
In1919, McGugin and Cody returned from WWI. Vanderbilt tiedTennessee, in the rain, andKentucky, and lost toGeorgia Tech andBuck Flowers in the mud. Vanderbilt also beat the SIAA champion,Auburn. SportswriterFuzzy Woodruff recalls the confusion in selecting a 1919 champion: "Auburn claimed it. "We defeated Tech" said Auburn. "Yes, but we defeated you" said Vanderbilt. "Yes", said Alabama, "but Tech, Tulane, and Tennessee took your measure. We defeated Georgia Tech, who tied Tulane, so we are champions...The newspapers, however, more or less generally supported the claim of Auburn..."[45] Cody again made Camp's third-team All-America.[46]
The1920 team lost toAlabama 14–7, and suffered big losses toGeorgia Tech andAuburn, 44–0 and 56–6 respectively.Fred Russell'sFifty Years of Vanderbilt Football gives the year of 1920 the title "One of Most Difficult Schedules."
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In1921, the Commodores hiredWallace Wade as an assistant[47] and posted an undefeated, 7–0–1 record. "TheTexas game, sparked by McGugin's unforgettable oratory, was the big one."[38] "Instead of hammering detailed strategy into them,"[48] coach Dan McGugin had taken his team to the nearby grave of former Vanderbilt quarterback Curry inMarlin, Texas. In a noted speech just before the teams took to the field, referring to this grave, McGugin tapped his fingers on the floor and began:
You are about to be put to an ordeal which will show the stuff that's in you! What a glorious chance you have! Every one of you is going to fix his status for all time in the minds and hearts of his teammates today. How you fight is what you will be remembered by. If any shirk, the Lord pity him. He will be degraded in the hearts of the rest as long as they live...[49]
Vanderbilt went on to upset the Longhorns 20–0. Later the same season, Vanderbilt facedGeorgia in a contest for the Southern crown, tying the game late on an onside-kick-from-scrimmage 7–7.[50]
Vanderbilt athletics historian Bill Traughber describes McGugin's speech before the1922 game against the Michigan Wolverines at the dedication ofDudley Field:
In the locker room prior to the kickoff, McGugin gave his hopeful pregame inspirational talk. Referring to the Michigan players, McGugin said, "You are going againstYankees, some of whose grandfathers killed your grandfathers in theCivil War." Unknown to the Commodore players was the fact that McGugin's father had been an officer in theUnion army.[51]
The quote is also reported, probably more accurately,[52][53] as "Out there lie the bones of your grandfathers;" referring to the nearby militarycemetery, "And down on that field are the grandsons of the Yankee soldiers who put them there."[54][55]
Next season Wade left to coach Alabama and was replaced by former tackle Josh Cody.[n 2] The1923 Commodores won Vanderbilt's last conference title in football to-date.Lynn Bomar was consensus All-American.[17]
SportswriterFred Russell dubbed the1924 season "the most eventful in the history of Vanderbilt football", featuring wins overGeorgia Tech andMinnesota,[56] as well as losses such as toSewanee.[57] EndHek Wakefield was consensus All-American, and beat Georgia Tech 3–0 with a 37-yarddrop-kick field goal.[17] He was considered the greatest drop kicker in school history.[58]
The1925 Commodores saw the first year of running backBill Spears.[59] The1926 team suffered its only loss to Wade's national championAlabama team. In1927, Spears posted multiple passing records and halfbackJimmy Armistead led the nation in scoring.[60] After the 32–0 defeat ofBernie Bierman'sTulane Green Wave that year, Bierman thought of ditching hissingle-wingback formation. McGugin convinced him to keep it.[61] Along with Spears and Armistead, endLarry Creson was All-Southern.[62]
Armistead took Spears' spot at quarterback in1928 and was second-team All-Southern.[63] Vanderbilt suffered only two losses – both to undefeated teams:Georgia Tech andTennessee. GuardBull Brown was All-American in1929.[17] The1930 team beatMinnesota.[64] CenterPete Gracey told this story about McGugin in 1930: "In my first varsity year, the night before we playedGeorgia Tech, Coach McGugin casually walked up to me in the lobby of our hotel, put his arm around my shoulder and sorta whispered, "I was with some Atlanta newspapermen this afternoon and I told them you were the finest sophomore center I had ever coached. I hope that I haven't made it embarrassing for you" We beat Tech, 49 to 7. Afterward I talked to seven other players and you know, Coach McGugin told them all the same thing he told me."[65]
The1931 team beatOhio State, but lost four other games. Pete Gracey was a consensus All-American in1932. The Commodores and rivalVolunteers fought to a scoreless tie. "Considering that we lost such a valuable player as Pete Gracey so early in the game, I thought that Vanderbilt was very fortunate in getting out with a tie" said McGugin.[66]
Following the 1932 season, Vanderbilt joined the other SoCon schools south and west of the Appalachians in founding theSoutheastern Conference. The1933 team lost three and tied three, the worst season for McGugin since 1914.
McGugin retired after the1934 season.[67] He remains the most successful Vanderbilt head football coach in the history of the program.[67] He selected: Bull Brown, Josh Cody, Lew Hardage, Ray Morrison, Bill Spears, and Hek Wakefield as the six best players he ever coached.[68]
McGugin was a corporate lawyer in the offseason,[69] and maintained an active office in Nashville.[70] He worked in the First National Bank Building, and his law partner was John R. Austin.[71] He was also a professor of law at Vanderbilt.[72]
McGugin died of heart failure in 1936, just two years after quitting the coaching profession and taking on the position of athletic director.[9] At the time of his retirement, he had served longer at one institution than any other coach in America.[74] He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural 1951 class.[75] He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1966.[76] He was inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.[2]
Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff wrote:
The plain facts of the business are that McGugin stood out in the South likeGulliver among the native sons ofLilliput... There was no foeman worthy of the McGugin steel.[73]
SportswriterZipp Newman wrote:
I believe Dan McGugin would have gone down in history as the greatest of all coaches had he given all of his time to coaching. He was a great play-maker, but football was a sport for the beloved McGugin and law was his profession."[77][9]
Fred Russell wrote of McGugin:
For years he ruled supreme in Dixie, and his teams won many glorious intersectional victories. More than any one man, he was responsible for the progress of southern football.... He was the first coach to successfully work the onside kick. He was among the first tobring out guards in the interference.... His name will never die.[78]
Several of McGugin's players became coaches. McGugin'scoaching tree includes:
"Vandy Opens '20 Grid Work Today".The Macon Daily Telegraph. September 13, 1920.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)