Ernest R. Godfrey (April 19, 1892 – June 12, 1980) 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 wi ...

player and coach of football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. Godfrey was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1972. Godfrey was born in

Dover, Ohio Dover is a city in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States, along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 13,112 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately south of Cleveland, west of Pittsburgh, and northeast of the state capital of Col ...

graduating from Dover High School in 1911. Godfrey played college football at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

from 1912–1914. Godfrey served as head football coach at

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ...

for 11 seasons beginning in 1916, interrupted for the next two seasons due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

where he served at a 1st Lt in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, returning to coaching in 1919. Over his coaching tenure,

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...

achieved a 63–24–8 record, including two league titles in 1927 and 1928. Godfrey also coached the men's basketball team, earning a 95–65 record. In 1929, he returned to his alma mater,

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, as an assistant football coach. He served at Ohio State for 33 years under seven head coaches—

Sam Willaman Samuel Stienneck Willaman (April 4, 1890 – August 18, 1935) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Iowa State University (1922–1925), Ohio State University (1929–1933), and Western Reserve University (1934 ...

Francis Schmidt Francis Albert Schmidt (December 3, 1885 – September 19, 1944) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Tulsa (1919–1921), the University of Arka ...

Paul Brown Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Clevela ...

Carroll Widdoes Carroll Curtis Widdoes (December 3, 1903 – September 22, 1971) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at Ohio State University (1944–1945) and Ohio University (1949–1957), compiling a ...

Paul Bixler Paul O. Bixler (January 25, 1907 – November 18, 1985) was an American football player, coach, and administrator and basketball coach. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University for one season in 1946 and at Colgate Universit ...

Wes Fesler Wesley Eugene Fesler (June 29, 1908 – July 30, 1989) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach of football and basketball. He was a three-sport athlete at Ohio State University and a consensus first-team selection to ...

, and

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

. He was the line coach for 19 years, defensive backfield coach for four years, and freshman coach for ten years.

Head coaching record

College football

References

External links

* * 1892 births 1980 deaths American football ends American football centers Ohio State Buckeyes football players Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Wittenberg Tigers football coaches Wittenberg Tigers men's basketball coaches High school football coaches in Ohio College Football Hall of Fame inductees Basketball coaches from Ohio People from Dover, Ohio {{1910s-collegefootball-coach-stub