University of the Pacific

When having a conversation about the early days of college football, one cannot do so without bringing up the great Amos Alonzo Stagg, widely regarded as football's Grand Old Man. 

Owner of the second-highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I football history, Stagg patrolled college football sidelines for nearly six decades with a .605 winning percentage and 314 wins.

Co-founder the American Football Coaches Association in 1922, Stagg coached the Tigers from 1933 to 1946 and earned National Coach of the Year honors from the National Football Coaches Association in 1943 after leading Pacific to a 7-2 record and a No. 19 ranking in the final Associated Press poll - all at 81 years old and in his 54th year of coaching.

1943 also saw Pacific's highest national ranking ever (fifth) and the school's first All-American in offensive lineman Art McCaffray. 

"Double A" was aided on the sidelines during that magical 1943 season by line coach Larry Siemering and specialist Amby Schindler. He departed Pacific in 1946 after leading the Tigers to five Far Western Conference championships.

In 1951, Stagg become the only person ever elected to the National Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and in 1960, became the third recipient over of the National Football Foundation's Gold Medal. Among the many milestones in Stagg's football life were a 6-0 win over California in 1939, his 50th year of coaching college football.

Stagg held a 41-year record for the most wins by a coach at a single school, broken in 2007 by the late Joe Paterno of Penn State. 

The namesake of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award of Honor and the NCAA Division III football national championship game, Stagg is credited with many sporting inventions, including the in door batting cage, the huddle, numbers on unfiroms, the lateral pass, the direct pass from the center, cross blocking and the backfield shift. 

Outside of football, Stagg participated in the first public basketball game on March 11, 1892 at Springfield College. Stagg, who coached the University of Chicago basketball team as well, is credited as the brainchild the five-on-five basketball format by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.