Nelson H. Norgren was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 player and coach. As a coach, he led the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 to a national AAU

Amateur Athletic Union

The Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...

 basketball championship in 1916. He later served as the basketball coach at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 from 1921 to 1957.

Playing career

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Norgren graduated from North Division High School in 1910. He attended the University of Chicago, where he played football, basketball, track, and baseball, winning 12 letters. He played football for Amos Alonzo Stagg

Amos Alonzo Stagg

Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football...

. He was named to Walter Camp

Walter Camp

Walter Chauncey Camp was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football...

's College Football All-America Team

College Football All-America Team

The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best American college football players at their respective positions. The original usage of the term All-America seems to have been to the 1889 College Football All-America Team selected by Casper Whitney and published in This...

s in 1912 (second-team) and 1913 (third-team).

Football coach

Norgren was the head coach of football at Utah

Utah Utes football

The Utah Utes football program is a college football team that currently competes in the Pacific-12 Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision of NCAA Division I and represents the University of Utah. The Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at Rice–Eccles...

 from 1914 through 1917. While there, he accumulated a record of 13–11 (.542).

Basketball coach

In 1914, Nelson became the athletic director and basketball coach at the University of Utah. His team won the 1916 AAU national championship. In 1917, he coached Brigham Young University

BYU Cougars men's basketball

The BYU Cougars men's basketball team represents Brigham Young University in NCAA Division I basketball play. Established in 1902, the team has won 30 conference championships and 2 NIT Tournaments , and competed in 26 NCAA Tournaments. It currently competes in the West Coast Conference...

 to a second place finish in the 1917 AAU tournament.

In 1921, Norgren was hired by his former coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, as the University of Chicago's assistant football coach and head basketball coach. He also coached the school's baseball team from 1922 to 1926. In 1942, Norgren was elected president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He retired as Chicago's basketball coach in 1957. In his 34 seasons as the head basketball coach at Chicago, his teams had a winning record in only three seasons: 1924, 1948, and 1949. His teams had back-to-back winless seasons in 1951 (0–18) and 1952 (0–15) and had a combined record of 1–49 from 1951–1953.

Norgren was inducted into the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame and the University of Chicago Hall of Fame.

Football

Basketball

Norgren's record as basketball coach at the University of Chicago was as follows:

• 1921–22 — 15–15
• 1922–23 — 6–9
• 1923–24 — 11–6
• 1924–25 — 3–14
• 1925–26 — 5–11
• 1926–27 — 6–11
• 1927–28 — 8–9
• 1928–29 — 5–11
• 1929–30 — 5–12
• 1930–31 — 8–9
• 1931–32 — 2–15
• 1932–33 — 2–16
• 1933–34 — 5–15
• 1934–35 — 2–18
• 1935–36 — 6–14
• 1936–37 — 4–16
• 1937–38 — 6–12
• 1938–39 — 9–11
• 1939–40 — 5–14
• 1940–41 — 6–14
• 1941–42 — 2–19
• 1944–45 — 7–8
• 1945–46 — 6–14
• 1946–47 — 4–13
• 1947–48 — 2–16
• 1948–49 — 10–8
• 1949–50 — 10–8
• 1950–51 — 0–18
• 1951–52 — 0–15
• 1952–53 — 1–16
• 1953–54 — 6–9
• 1954–55 — 6–13
• 1955–56 — 7–9
• 1956–57 — 6–11
• Overall record at University of Chicago — 186–429 (.302)

External links