Clem F. Crowe (October 18, 1903 – April 13, 1983) was an American
and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player and coach. He served as the head football coach at
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a private Benedictine college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, it is operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine monastery in the ...
(1926–1931),
Xavier University
Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...
(1936–1943), and the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
(1945), compiling a career
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
record of 71–66–5. Crowe was also the head basketball coach at Saint Vincent College (1928–1932), Xavier (1933–1943), and the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
(1944–1945), tallying a career
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
mark of 152–115. He later coached professional football for the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...
and
Baltimore Colts of the
All-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...
(AAFC), and the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
and
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions played their first seas ...
of the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
(CFL).
Playing career
![Clem Crowe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Clem_Crowe.jpg)
Crowe played college football and basketball at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
. He earned three letters in basketball and was a basketball All-American. He also earned three letters in football under Coach
Knute Rockne. Crowe played football from 1923 to 1925 and was a two-time
All-American. He played end for Notre Dame's "Seven Mule" team and was named Notre Dame's football captain in 1925.
College coaching career
After graduation, Crowe took a position as a coach at
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a private Benedictine college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, it is operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine monastery in the ...
in
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.
The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Rid ...
. There he coached the football team from 1926 to 1931, compiling a record of 23–27–3, and the basketball team from 1928–1932, tallying a 41–31 mark in four seasons.
Crowe left Saint Vincent in 1932 and took a job at
Xavier University
Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...
. He coached the
Xavier basketball team from 1933 to 1943 and had a 96–79 record in ten seasons. He also coached the
Xavier football team from 1935 to 1943 and compiled a 46–32–2 record. In addition, Crowe was a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
coach and a
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
coach at Xavier. He was inducted into the Xavier University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.
Crowe left Xavier in 1943 and returned to his alma mater. He was an assistant football coach at Notre Dame in 1944 and the head basketball coach for the 1944–45 season.
In 1945, Crowe was hired on an interim basis as the 17th head football coach at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
while Iowa's regular coach,
Eddie Anderson, was serving with the
U.S. Army Medical Corps during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Following Crowe's one season, in which he had a 2–7 record, Anderson returned, and Crowe left the
Iowa football
The Iowa Hawkeyes football program represents the University of Iowa in college football. The Hawkeyes compete in the West division of the Big Ten Conference. Iowa joined the Conference (then known as the Western Conference or Big Nine) in 1899 ...
program.
Professional coaching career
Crowe resurfaced in 1949 as the head coach of the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...
of the
All-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...
, going 4–1–1. When the Buffalo franchise folded, he left to coach the
Baltimore Colts in 1950. He had a 1–11 record, and after the season, that franchise folded as well.
NFL Hall of Famer Art Donovan had this to say of Clem Crowe, his coach during his 1950 rookie season with the Colts: "This sonofabitch was crazy, and my first training camp immediately became one of the worst experiences of my life. First of all, Crowe must have had 150 players in camp, and all we did was scrimmage. No drills. No chalk talk. No run-throughs of plays. Just hot, humid, bone-breaking, full-pad scrimmages.... For my first couple of days in camp I wasn't even issued pads."
Crowe then headed north to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and agreed to coach the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
of the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
in 1951. In his first season in Ottawa, he led the Rough Riders to the
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
. He later left Ottawa for the
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions played their first seas ...
. He was a head coach in Vancouver from 1956 to 1958. Crowe died in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
on April 13, 1983 at age 79.
Head coaching record
College football
Professional football
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowe, Clem
1903 births
1983 deaths
Basketball coaches from Indiana
American football ends
Forwards (basketball)
Baltimore Colts (1947–1950) coaches
Iowa Hawkeyes football coaches
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players
Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball coaches
Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players
Saint Vincent Bearcats football coaches
Xavier Musketeers athletic directors
Xavier Musketeers football coaches
Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Sportspeople from Lafayette, Indiana
Players of American football from Indiana
Basketball players from Indiana
Educators from Indiana
American men's basketball players