Jack Harold Little (December 31, 1931 – November 26, 2016) 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 assistant football coach. After playing

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 ...

for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, he played two seasons for the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

from 1953–54. He later served as a college assistant coach before working in Texas' parole system and finally retiring.

Early years

Little was born in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...

. At the age of 12, his father died. His mother remarried when Jack was a senior in high school and moved to Washington, D.C. Jack and his older brother, Gene, remained in Corpus Christi. His brother received a scholarship to play football at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

. In high school, Little was a second-team All-District football player.Burson (2004), p. 27.

Playing career

Although Little enrolled at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

as a freshman, he did not attend any classes or played football there. Intimidated by the three-a-day practices that Houston held, Little and a high school friend escaped to

. Little tried out for the football team, only because head coach

Harry Stiteler Robert Harry Stiteler (September 19, 1909 – July 17, 1994) was an American athlete and American football, football Coach (sport), coach. While attending Texas A&M University, he set a Southwest Conference record in the pole vault and played foot ...

was impressed by his toughness, determination, and intelligence. Little lettered in football at Texas A&M from 1950–52. In 1950, he was part of an A&M squad that led the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

(SWC) in total offense, and played in the

Presidential Cup The Presidential Cup Game (also known as the Presidential Cup Bowl) was a postseason American college football bowl game played at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland, on December 8, 1950, between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Georgia Bulldogs. ...

. Little made two

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

first-teams during his college years, one as a junior in 1951 and another as a senior in 1952. He also named an All-SWC lineman the same years. He also made the distinguished students list during his senior year for his academic performance. He was ultimately inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982. In the

1953 NFL Draft The 1953 National Football League Draft was held on January 22, 1953, at Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Selections made by the folded Dallas Texans were assigned to the new Baltimore Colts. This was the seventh year that the first ove ...

, Little was selected in the 5th round (50th overall) by the

. He played two seasons for the Colts before a back injury ended his playing career.

Career after the NFL

After his brief stint in the NFL, Little became an assistant football coach for

Texas A&I Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

(now Texas A&M–Kingsville). He was subsequently offered another assistant job by

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

head coach

John Bridgers John Dixon Bridgers II (January 13, 1922 – November 24, 2006) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Johns Hopkins University from 1953 to 1956 and at Baylor University from 19 ...

. Little accepted the position in 1963, and helped lead the Bears to an 8–3–0 record and a No. 20 finish in the national

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

. Little served as a coaching assistant at Baylor until 1968, when Bridgers was fired. Little remained for a brief period at Baylor, working in the school's outdoor education program. Little later became an assistant for

Sam Houston State University Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

. He quit the coaching profession after another back injury. He then worked for Texas' parole system for 17 years before retiring in 1996.Burson (2004), pp. 29

Personal life and death

Little married his wife Nancy in 1950, which was at the end of his freshman year. They soon had the first of their two daughters by the time he left Texas A&M. His oldest daughter eventually received a

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from the school. His nephew,

Walker Little Walker Douglas Little (born April 1, 1999) is an American football offensive tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Stanford, and was drafted by the Jaguars in the second round o ...

, was drafted in the second round of the

2021 NFL Draft The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021 ...

by the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

after playing college football at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. Jack Little died in

Speegleville, Texas Speegleville is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community located in McLennan County, Texas, McLennan County in Central Texas. Speegleville is a Suburb in the Waco, Texas, Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is located along Tex ...

on November 26, 2016, at the age of 84.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Jack 1931 births 2016 deaths Players of American football from Corpus Christi, Texas American football offensive tackles Texas A&M Aggies football players Baltimore Colts players Coaches of American football from Texas Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas football coaches Baylor Bears football coaches Sam Houston Bearkats football coaches