Susquehanna still disputes Stagg's official record
Legendary Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno is on the
brink of passing Amos Alonzo Stagg, Sr., for fifth on the NCAA's
list of career coaching victories in all divisions. A victory by
Paterno's Nittany Lions at Purdue on Saturday would give him a
record of 315-80-3 -- one more win than Stagg's 314-199-35 mark for
57 years.
But hold the phone. Stagg's official NCAA record doesn't include
the 21-19-3 mark he posted as co-coach of Susquehanna -- little
over an hour from Paterno's Penn State campus.
Stagg, Sr., co-coached at Susquehanna with his son, Amos, Jr., for
six seasons between 1947 and 1952. While Susquehanna listed the
elder Stagg as an "advisory coach" to his son in official NCAA
records at the time -- it later credited him as co-coach based on
evidence it has about those seasons. That evidence includes a plea
from his son to give his father credit for those wins, player
testimonials suggesting that the elder Stagg was at least a
co-coach, and media and opponent sports information accounts from
games of that era making reference to the venerable "Grand Old Man
of Football" as head coach of the Crusaders.
Susquehanna officials appealed twice to the NCAA statistics bureau
(1981, 1994) to have Stagg's record include his wins at
Susquehanna, but were rejected both times -- in spite of evidence
to the contrary -- because the university's official documentation
at the time listed the younger Stagg as head coach and his dad as
advisory coach. But, as Stagg, Jr. told Time in 1965,
"Formally, he was my assistant. Practically, he was in charge. To
disagree with my father was like breaking with God."
Paterno will pass Stagg in Division I-A wins with one more victory.
But as for the overall list, Susquehanna's record for the "Grand
Old Man of Football" will still read as 335-218-38 for 63 seasons
of coaching, even if the NCAA's doesn't.
