 Lieb as the coach of Loyola, 1937 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1899-10-28)October 28, 1899 Faribault, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | April 30, 1962(1962-04-30) (aged 62) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Football | |
| 1919–1922 | Notre Dame |
| Ice hockey | |
| 1922–1923 | Notre Dame |
| Positions | Tackle (football) Goaltender (ice hockey) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1923–1925 | Notre Dame (assistant) |
| 1926–1928 | Wisconsin (line) |
| 1929 | Notre Dame (assistant) |
| 1930–1938 | Loyola (CA) |
| 1940–1945 | Florida |
| 1946–1950 | Alabama (line) |
| Ice hockey | |
| 1923–1926 | Notre Dame |
| Track and Field | |
| 1946–1951 | Alabama |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1940–1945 | Florida |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 67–59–5 (football) |
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||
| Weight | 98 kg (216 lb) | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||
Event | Discus throw | |||||||||||
| Club | Illinois Athletic Club | |||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
| Personalbest | 47.61 (1924)[1] | |||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||
Thomas John Lieb (October 28, 1899 – April 30, 1962) was an AmericanOlympictrack and field athlete, anAll-American collegefootball player and a multi-sport collegiate coach. Lieb was aMinnesota native and analumnus of theUniversity of Notre Dame, where he playedcollege football. He was best known as thehead coach of theLoyola Marymount University andUniversity of Florida football teams.[2]
Tom Lieb was born inFaribault, Minnesota in 1899. In high school, Lieb excelled atbaseball, football,ice hockey, andtrack and field. He attended the University of Notre Dame inSouth Bend, Indiana, where helettered in all four sports and twice received All-American football honors. During the 1922 season, Lieb broke his leg in the game againstPurdue.[3] While doing his graduate studies at the university, he coached theNotre Dame hockey and track & field teams, and also coached the linemen for theFighting Irish football team under head coachKnute Rockne.
Lieb was a two-timeNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national collegiate champion in the discus in 1922 and 1923, and theAmateur Athletic Union (AAU) national open champion in 1923 and 1924. He is widely credited with introducing the modern spin delivery that is still used today.[4] At the1924 Summer Olympics held inParis, France, Lieb competed for the United States in thediscus throw and won the bronze medal, but did not equal the distance of his qualifying throw.[1] Several weeks after the Olympics ended, Lieb broke the discus world record with a throw of 47.61 meters (156 feet 2½ inches).[1]
Following his graduation, Lieb accepted an offer to coach the linemen for theWisconsin Badgers.[5] In 1929, Lieb returned to Notre Dame as the assistant football coach,[5] and was instrumental in directing the Irish to anational championship asKnute Rockne spent most of the season recovering from complications due tothrombophlebitis, a crippling infection of Rockne's leg.[6][7]
Lieb's coaching success was recognized when he was offered the head coaching position atLoyola University inLos Angeles, California, where he remained from 1930 to 1938. Lieb relished his role as theLoyola Lions head football coach, posing with lion cubs in publicity photographs, and posted an overall record of 47–33–4.[8] Lieb also started Loyola's ice hockey program as an off-season conditioning program for his football players, but quickly built the team into a powerhouse with an annual rivalry with theUniversity of Southern California.[9] From 1935 to 1938, Lieb's hockey Lions won four consecutive Pacific Coast Intercollegiate League titles and compiled a 38–3–2 record.[10] Lieb quit his coaching job at Loyola during his wife's illness in 1939, and then decided to leave California after she died.[5]
In 1940, Lieb succeededJosh Cody as the head football coach at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida,[5] with high expectations based on his prior successes with Notre Dame and Loyola.[11] He also served as Florida's athletic director.[12] Lieb, however, was unable to duplicate the same level of success with the Gators that he had at Notre Dame and Loyola. In his five seasons of coaching theFlorida Gators football team from1940 to1945, Lieb compiled a 20–26–1 record,[8][13] and his contract was not renewed after the 1945 season. Thereafter, Lieb worked as the assistantCrimson Tide football coach and head track & field coach at theUniversity of Alabama, where his old Notre Dame teammateFrank Thomas was the head football coach,[12] from 1946 to 1951.[6]
When Lieb retired in 1951, he returned to Los Angeles, where he became a public speaker. He died of an apparent heart attack in 1962 at age 62.[6] He was elected to the Loyola Marymount Hall of Fame posthumously in 1987.[10][14]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyola Lions(Independent)(1930–1938) | |||||||||
| 1930 | Loyola | 2–3–1 | |||||||
| 1931 | Loyola | 7–2–1 | |||||||
| 1932 | Loyola | 4–4 | |||||||
| 1933 | Loyola | 7–2–1 | |||||||
| 1934 | Loyola | 7–2–1 | |||||||
| 1935 | Loyola | 6–5 | |||||||
| 1936 | Loyola | 6–3 | |||||||
| 1937 | Loyola | 4–7 | |||||||
| 1938 | Loyola | 4–5 | |||||||
| Loyola: | 47–33–4 | ||||||||
| Florida Gators(Southeastern Conference)(1940–1946) | |||||||||
| 1940 | Florida | 5–5 | 2–3 | 8th | |||||
| 1941 | Florida | 4–6 | 1–3 | 10th | |||||
| 1942 | Florida | 3–7 | 1–3 | 9th | |||||
| 1943 | No team—World War II | ||||||||
| 1944 | Florida | 4–3 | 0–3 | 10th | |||||
| 1945 | Florida | 4–5–1 | 1–3–1 | T–10th | |||||
| Florida: | 20–26–1 | 5–15–1[15] | |||||||
| Total: | 67–59–5[8] | ||||||||
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notre Dame Fighting IrishIndependent(1923–1926) | |||||||||
| 1923–24 | Notre Dame | 0–5–0 | |||||||
| 1924–25 | Notre Dame | 0–2–2 | |||||||
| 1925–26 | Notre Dame | 3–2–1 | |||||||
| Notre Dame: | 3–9–3 | ||||||||
| Total: | 3–9–3 | ||||||||
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Men's discus world record-holder September 14, 1924 – May 2, 1925 | Succeeded by |
