Ira "Irl" Tubbs (February 12, 1887 – February 9, 1970) 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 ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Superior State Teachers College—now known as the

University of Wisconsin–Superior The University of Wisconsin–Superior (UW–Superior or UWS) is a public liberal arts university in Superior, Wisconsin. UW–Superior grants associate, bachelor's, master's and specialist's degrees. The university enrolls 2,559 undergraduates ...

(1923–1925, 1928–1929), the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

(1935–1936), and the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

(1937–1938).

Playing and coaching career

Tubbs played

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 ...

William Jewell College William Jewell College is a private liberal arts college in Liberty, Missouri. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and endowed with $10,000 by William Jewell. It was associated with the Missouri Baptist Conventi ...

Liberty, Missouri Liberty is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Missouri, United States and is a suburb of Kansas City, located in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 30,167. Liberty is home to Willi ...

. He was a

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 ...

and

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

for William Jewell in the late 1910s. After graduation, Tubbs coached for two years in Missouri high schools before taking a coaching job at the

. He was in Wisconsin for nine years from 1922 to 1930, although he was only able to coach for five seasons due to attacks of

Malta fever Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat from infected animals, or close contact with their secretions. It is also known as undulant fever, Malta fever, and Mediterranean fever. The ...

. At Wisconsin–Superior, Tubbs served as both athletic director and a coach of football and hockey. He coached from 1923 to 1925 and again in 1928 and 1929, leading his school to football championships his last two seasons. Tubbs was a renowned inventor, developing improvements to athletic equipment such as a special inverted air valve for a football and elastic padding for football pants. Tubbs resigned from Wisconsin–Superior in 1930 after another bout of health problems and moved to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. While he was recovering there in 1935, the head football coaching job at the

opened, and Tubbs was hired to coach the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

. Tubbs coached the Hurricanes for two seasons in 1935 and 1936, where he compiled an 11–5–2 record. In both seasons, his Hurricane teams bowed out as potential hosts for New Year's Day

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s. Tubbs was then hired as the 14th head football coach at the

. He coached two seasons at Iowa in 1937 and 1938. He had a record of just 2–13–1 at Iowa, with his wins coming over

Bradley Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English. Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular. It is also an Anglicisation of t ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Tubbs' tenure at Iowa is best distinguished by his coaching of players who would star for Iowa's 1939 team, nicknamed the "Ironmen". Some of the players Tubbs coached included

Nile Kinnick Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a trainin ...

, an all-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

selection in 1937, and Erwin Prasse, an all-conference end in 1938. Tubbs was inducted into the

Athletics Hall of Fame in 1963.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tubbs, Irl 1887 births 1970 deaths American football ends American football quarterbacks Iowa Hawkeyes football coaches Miami Hurricanes football coaches Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets football coaches William Jewell Cardinals football players High school football coaches in Missouri