| Olympic medal record | ||
| Men's Rugby union | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1924 Paris | Rugby |
Dudley Sargent DeGroot (November 10, 1899 – May 5, 1970) was an American athlete and coach and is best known among sports enthusiasts as an American football coach for the Washington Redskins, for whom he leads all coaches in winning percentage with .737 among those with at least one full season coached.[1]
DeGroot received his doctorate degree in education and was recognized as one of the foremost oologists and ornithologists in the United States. His work in oology continues to be discussed in scientific publications.[2]
He competed successfully in many sports as an amateur and began his professional career as a collegiate coach.
His collegiate participation in sports records that at Stanford University he competed in basketball, football, swimming, and water polo. Playing under the legendary coach, Glenn "Pop" Warner, he became the Stanford Cardinal football team captain in 1922 and their first All-American athlete.
In both 1923 and 1924, DeGroot was the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America, 4A, ICAAAA, or IC4A, backstroke champion.
DeGroot was a member of the United States rugby team that won an Olympic gold medal during the 1924 competition in Paris.
His early coaching career included Santa Barbara State College, which is now one of the University of California campuses, and Menlo Junior College, the college level portion of Menlo School which became Menlo College in 1927 and now is independent, although they continue to share the same campus.
From 1932 through 1939 DeGroot was the head football coach at San Jose State University, where he put together a 59-19-8 record for the Spartans. His best season there came in 1939, when his team went undefeated and had outscored opponents 324 to 29. As of 2006 on a list published on Mercury News of the seven biggest turnarounds for a single season in the history of the Spartans, only DeGroot is listed twice, for 1932 and 1937. The statistics for these are: the record for the 1932 season is 7-0-2 with a previous season of 1-7 and a margin of six and, the record for the 1937 season is 11-2-1 with a previous season of 5-4 and another margin of six.
His next team leadership was at the University of Rochester, where he was football coach from 1940 through 1943. DeGroot's record there was 24-6-0.
Moving into the professional sports field, he then took over the Washington Redskins, a National Football League (NFL) team, in Washington, D.C. Although they lost the NFL championship for that year by one point, 15-14, to the Cleveland Rams, the Redskins won the Eastern Division title in 1945 with DeGroot as their coach.
During two seasons with the Los Angeles Dons of the new All-America Football Conference, DeGroot's record was 14-12-2.
DeGroot returned to collegiate coaching as the head football coach at West Virginia University during 1948 through 1949. His record for the West Virginia Mountaineers was 13-9-1.
At University of New Mexico from 1950 through 1952, DeGroot's record was 13-17-0 for the Lobos.
See also
List of Olympic medalists in rugby union
References
- ^ http://www.powerset.com/explore/go/Dudley-DeGroot
- ^ Henderson, Carrol L., “Oology, Ralph’s Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out of Its Shell”
External links
| Preceded by William Kern |
West Virginia Head Football Coach 1948–1949 |
Succeeded by Art Lewis |
| Preceded by Dutch Bergman |
Washington Redskins Head Coaches 1944-1945 |
Succeeded by Turk Edwards |
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