Ernest Elmer Bearg (July 20, 1893 – August 24, 1971) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

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 ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at

Washburn University Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 u ...

from 1918 to 1919 and again from 1929 to 1935 and the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

from 1925 to 1928, 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 71–40–7. Bearg also spent one year as Nebraska's men's basketball coach (1925–1926) and posted an 8–10 mark. Before coming to Nebraska, he also served as an assistant coach at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

under

Robert Zuppke Robert Carl Zuppke (July 2, 1879 – December 22, 1957) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1913 until 1941, compiling a career college football record of 131–81 ...

Early life

Bearg was a 1916 graduate of

where he was a member of the Kansas Beta Chapter 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 ...

. During his senior year at Washburn, he was elected senior class president.

Coaching career

Washburn

Bearg was the 15th and then the 20th head football coach for the Washburn Ichabods. He first held the position for two seasons in 1918 and 1919 and again for seven more seasons from 1929 until 1935. Bearg's overall record at Washburn was 47–33–4. After coaching for four seasons at Nebraska, Bearg led the Ichabods to a 36–31 record and the 1931 Central Intercollegiate Conference championship. Two of his team's three losses during the 1931 season came to the

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and Kansas State.

Nebraska

Under Bearg's leadership, Nebraska won its first

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

title in 1928 when his team went 7–1–1. The Cornhuskers were conference runners-up in 1926 and 1927 According to Nebraska's official athletics website, Bearg fielded powerful team during his four years at the helm but "fans criticized him for not using strategy and deception, which eventually led to his resignation." After four seasons in Lincoln, Bearg was replaced by future

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

coach,

Dana X. Bible Dana Xenophon Bible (October 8, 1891 – January 19, 1980) was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi College (1913–1 ...

.http://www.wusports.com/documents/2007/7/30/07fbguide-127-137-history1.pdf?id=69

Honors

Bearg was inducted into the Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame in 1973–74, and earned a spot as a coach in the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bearg, Ernest 1893 births 1971 deaths Basketball coaches from Kansas Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball coaches Washburn Ichabods football coaches Washburn University alumni Washburn Ichabods athletic directors People from Doniphan County, Kansas Players of American football from Kansas