James William Glassford (March 8, 1914 – September 19, 2016) was an American football player and coach, who served as head coach for the New Hampshire Wildcats and Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Biography

Glassford was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and attended the University of Pittsburgh where he played football, lettering from 1934 through 1936. He earned first-team All-American status at guard in 1936, for the Panthers team that won the

1937 Rose Bowl The 1937 Rose Bowl, was the 23rd edition of the bowl game, between the independent Pittsburgh Panthers of western Pennsylvania and the Washington Huskies of Seattle, the champions of the Pacific Coast Conference. The game was played at the Rose ...

. He was a member of

Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...

fraternity and graduated in 1937 with a degree in

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1937 NFL Draft. Also in 1937, he played for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

of the second

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. From 1938 through 1942, Glassford coached football at three different colleges. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy. From 1946 to 1948, Glassford was head football coach at the University of New Hampshire, where he compiled a 19–5–1 record, including an 8–1 record in 1947 for the Wildcats. From 1949 to 1955, he was head coach for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he compiled a 31–35–3 record. His three winning seasons there (1950, 1952, and 1954) were the only winning seasons the program had between 1941 and 1961. In 1955, he led the Cornhuskers to their first-ever Orange Bowl, where they lost to Duke, 34–7. Glassford coached three All-Americans in Tom Novak (1949), Bobby Reynolds (1950), and Jerry Minnick (1952). Glassford retired from coaching after the 1955 season and went into private business in Arizona. He was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and turned 100 in 2014. Glassford died in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of 102, and was at that time the oldest still-living former pro player, and one of only seven total to have lived a century.

Head coaching record

Source:
While listed in NCAA records, the Glass Bowl is not considered an NCAA-sanctioned bowl game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glassford, William 1914 births 2016 deaths American centenarians Men centenarians American football fullbacks American football guards Carnegie Mellon Tartans football coaches Manhattan Jaspers football coaches Miami Naval Air Station football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches New Hampshire Wildcats football coaches Pittsburgh Panthers football players Yale Bulldogs football coaches People from Lancaster, Ohio United States Navy personnel of World War II