Dudley DeGroot

Apart from being an outstanding football player at Stanford, Dudley DeGroot was also on the basketball, swimming, and water polo teams, and was the IC4A backstroke champion in 1923 and 1924. After graduating, DeGroot became quite famous as a football coach, which led to his eventual induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Cal/Santa Barbara in 1926. He 1933 he became an assistant at San Jose State under the fabled coach Pop Warner, who had been his college coach at Stanford in 1922-23. DeGroot became a head coach at Menlo College (1927-1932), San Jose State (1933-1939), the University of Rochester (1940-43), and in 1944 was named the head coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. In 1945 he led the 'Skins to the Eastern Conference title, but lost in the championship game to the Cleveland Rams, 15-14. DeGroot was then lured to the new All-American Football Conference where he coached the Los Angeles Dons for two years. He returned to the college ranks, finishing out at West Virginia and New Mexico and ending up with a career head coaching mark of 164 wins, 72 losses and 12 ties.