Fred H. Clapp 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 ...

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 ...

coach.

Football

Clapp was the fifth head football coach at the Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, serving for five years, from 1909 to 1913, and compiling a record of 24–11–6.

Racial integration

In 1913, Clapp fielded an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

player for his team. Kansas Normal School (now called

Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University (Pitt State or PSU) is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students (6,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students) and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. History ...

) officially launched a formal protest against the appearance of the player. In that same game, a player named Fred Hamilton was playing left halfback and was injured to the extent of having a broken neck and paralyzed arms. The game ended in a 6-6 tie.

The "Jinx"

The year 1914 proved especially important to Southwestern College lore. On November 8, 1912, Southwestern defeated Fairmont College (now

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

) by a score of 41 to 3. This was the first of a series of wins where Southwestern would beat or tie Fairmont ten of eleven games. This period of time earned the school the name "The Jinx" for many years to come.

Basketball

Clapp also coached men's basketball at Southwestern and was the second person on record to hold that post. He coached for five seasons, from 1909 until 1914. His record was 39 wins and 24 losses.

Head coaching record

Football

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clapp, Fred Year of birth missing Year of death missing Southwestern Moundbuilders football coaches Southwestern Moundbuilders men's basketball coaches