Harris Goodwin Cope (March 16, 1880 – September 24, 1924) 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

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 ...

player and football coach. He served as the head football coach at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee from 1909 to 1916 and

Howard College Howard College is a community college in the U.S. state of Texas with its main campus in Big Spring and branch campuses in San Angelo and Lamesa. History Howard County Junior College was established in Big Spring in 1945. 148 students be ...

—now known as

Samford University Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College by Baptists. Samford University describes itself as the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United Sta ...

—in

Marion, Alabama Marion is a city in, and the county seat of, Perry County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 3,686, up 4.8% over 2000. First known as Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed for a hero of the American Revolut ...

from 1922 to 1923, compiling a career college football coaching record of 48–28–12. Cope was a member of the National Football Rules Committee in 1914–15.

Early life and playing career

Cope first played at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut.

Sewanee

In his first year of varsity football, Cope was a substitute

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

on the undefeated "Iron Men" of the

1899 Sewanee Tigers football team The 1899 Sewanee Tigers football team represented Sewanee: The University of the South in the 1899 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. Sewanee was one of the first college football powers of the South and the 1899 te ...

. He was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

and the starting quarter for Sewanee's 1901 team. Cope played

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

on the Sewanee baseball team.

Coaching career

Cope worked for a short time as a business man in

Cartersville Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States; it is located within the northwest edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,187. Cartersville is the county seat of Bartow Cou ...

before returning to Sewanee to coach in 1909. For many years, he returned to Cartersville during the off-seasons to manage the Cartersville Colts semi-professional men’s baseball team.

Sewanee

Cope has the third-most wins of any Sewanee coach (43), behind Shirley Majors' 93 and John Windham's 45; and has the highest winning percentage of any Sewanee coach who coached for more than 3 seasons. His continuity came after a period in which Sewanee had much talent but six coaches in seven years.

1909

In Cope's first year at head coach he led the Sewanee Tigers to a

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

(SIAA) championship in

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...

, beating previous season's champion

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

and handing Vanderbilt its first loss to a Southern team in six years.

Howard

Former Sewanee player

Bob Taylor Dobbins Robert Taylor Dobbins (July 3, 1890 – July 27, 1945) was a college football player and coach. Early years Bob Taylor Dobbins was born on July 3, 1890, in Gallatin, Tennessee to Thomas Miller Dobbins and Leila Glass. Playing career Sewanee ...

assisted Cope at Howard. Cope was also a very astute golfer, playing in club tournaments during his off-seasons.

Death

Cope died of pneumonia in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, on September 24, 1924, just before the start of Howard's football season.

Legacy

Cope's disciples include: *

, played for Sewanee (1913–1915), assistant for Howard (1922–1923) * Frank Faulkinberry, played for Sewanee (1907–1910), head coach for

Middle Tennessee State Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as well as a college of Postgr ...

(1926–1932) *

Jenks Gillem Jennings Frederick "Sam" "Jenks" Gillem (c. 1890 – November 11, 1951) was an American football player and coach. Gillem played for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee: The University of the South, and was selected All-Southern in 1910, 1911, and 191 ...

, played for Sewanee (1910–1912), head coach for Howard (1925–1926), Birmingham–Southern (1928–1939), head coach for Sewanee (1940–1941) *

Frank Juhan Francis Alexander "June" Juhan (April 27, 1887 – December 31, 1967) was an American football player and coach as well as an Episcopal bishop. He played center for the Sewanee Tigers football team and was the first roving linebacker in the Sout ...

, played for Sewanee (1908–1910), assistant for Sewanee (1913–1915) *

Henry D. Phillips Henry Disbrow Phillips (January 16, 1882 – June 29, 1955) was an American Episcopal bishop (1938–1955) and college American football player and coach (1900–1909). Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff called him "the greatest football player who ever ...

, assistant for Sewanee (1909–1915) *

Silas Williams Silas McBee "Sike" Williams (June 9, 1888 – December 8, 1944) was an Americancollege football player and coach as well as a lawyer. Sewanee Williams was a prominent End (gridiron football), end for the Sewanee Tigers football, Sewanee Tigers of ...

, played for Sewanee (1908–1909), assistant for Sewanee (1914–1915), head coach for

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

(1919–1921)

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cope, Harris G. 1880 births 1924 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football quarterbacks Baseball third basemen Samford Bulldogs athletic directors Samford Bulldogs football coaches Sewanee Tigers athletic directors Sewanee Tigers baseball players Sewanee Tigers football coaches Sewanee Tigers football players Taft School alumni Coaches of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) Players of American football from Savannah, Georgia Baseball players from Savannah, Georgia Deaths from pneumonia in Alabama