Ernest Artel Blood (October 4, 1872,

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

– February 5, 1955) was a high school and college men's basketball coach. He was best known for his "Wonder Teams" at

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Passaic High School Passaic High School is a four-year community public high school, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Passaic, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Passaic City School District. The school has ...

, which lost only one game in the span of a decade and set an American high school record for most consecutive victories. As a basketball innovator who focused on team play and a clean lifestyle in which players were prohibited from drinking or smoking, Blood emphasized the

fast break Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball and handball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. The ...

, well-controlled passing and the

full-court press A full-court press is a basketball term for a defensive style in which the defense applies pressure to the offensive team the entire length of the court before and after the inbound pass. Pressure may be applied man-to-man, or via a zone press us ...

over individual performance. Known as the "Professor", he was also a showman who would wrestle the team's bear cub mascot at halftime and could toss a 16-pound shot put into the air and catch it on the back of his neck. Between 1915 and 1924 he coached

to a remarkable 200-1 record, winning seven state basketball championships during his tenure, though the team's success on the court created conflict between Blood and the school's principal, Arnold D. Arnold, who thought that the team's overwhelming athletic accomplishments were distracting students from their academics. Passaic High's 1921–22 basketball team finished the season with a record of 33–0 and outscored its opponents by a margin of 2,293–612, scoring almost four times as many points as their foes did in each game. Passaic was unbeaten for more than five seasons, and won 159 consecutive games from 1919-25, a feat which considered to be the longest winning streak in high school basketball history in the United States.Cowen, Richard
"‘Prof’ a character, winner"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and ...

'', October 13, 2009. Accessed October 16, 2009. The streak ended on February 6, 1925, after Blood had already left Passaic High, in a game the Hilltoppers lost 39–35 to the Hackensack High School Comets. The game, played at the Hackensack Armory, was said to have been designed to slow down the Passaic High fast break through the placement of sawdust on the playing surface. Blood coached St. Benedict's Prep from 1925 to 1950 to a 421-128 record, winning five prep-school state championships during his quarter-century at the school. He briefly coached at

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

(West Point) and Potsdam Normal School (predecessor of SUNY Potsdam as well as at

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an e ...

l.Ernest A. Blood profile
, Basketball Hall of Fame. Accessed October 16, 2009. He won a grand total of 1,200 games over the span of his 50 years in basketball, coaching YMCA, high school, prep school and college teams. In recognition of all of his accomplishments as a basketball coach, Blood was one of ten individuals inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts with the class of 1960, the second year of the Hall's existence (in the same class with John Wooden, who was initially enshrined as a player and only later as a coach). Blood died in New Smyrna Beach, Florida on February 5, 1955 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

References

External links

Basketball Hall of Fame profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blood, Ernest 1872 births 1955 deaths Basketball coaches from New Hampshire Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Army Black Knights men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in New Jersey National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Manchester, New Hampshire Sportspeople from Passaic, New Jersey