John Elmore Musick ( – November 27, 1977) 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 ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

from 1966 to 1974. Musick played as a lineman at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

(USC) from 1944 to 1946. In 1947 he became an assistant coach under

Bob Blackman Robert John Blackman (born 26 April 1956) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 C ...

Monrovia High School Monrovia High School is a public high school located in Monrovia, California, a northeastern suburb of Los Angeles, United States. Monrovia High School is the only grades 9–12 comprehensive high school in the Monrovia Unified School Distric ...

Monrovia, California Monrovia is a city in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 37,931 at the 2020 census. Monrovia has been used for filming TV shows, movies and co ...

, and then followed him to Pasadena City College in 1949. In 1951 Musick became head coach at Hart High School. In 1953, he rejoined Bob Blackman at

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

where he served as head line coach. Musick worked in that capacity under Blackman for the next 13 years, including 11 after 1955 when both were hired by

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

. Dartmouth won four

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

titles with Musick coaching under Blackman. After replacing

Tom Harp Thomas Harp (born c. 1927) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Cornell University (1961–1965), Duke University (1967–1970), and Indiana State University (1973–1977), compiling a career col ...

at Cornell, Musick won Cornell's first official Ivy League title in 1971, and coached top rusher

Ed Marinaro Ed Marinaro (born March 31, 1950) is an American actor and former NFL player. In 1971, he was a unanimous All-American and finished as a runner-up to Pat Sullivan for the Heisman Trophy, and from 2010 to 2011 starred in the football comedy s ...

. In 1971 Musick was also named Division I Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association. However, after back-to-back losing seasons in 1973 and 1974, and several recruiting scandals hit other sports at Cornell, Musick was terminated by the university at the end of the 1974 season. His final record was 45–33–3. Musick died at the age of 52 on November 27, 1977, of cancer at a hospital in

Clear Lake, Texas Clear Lake is a populated place located in Collin County, Texas on the south end of the Lavon Lake Peninsula. By land it is south of Princeton and over water northwest of Lavon, southwest of Copeville, and north of Wylie. Population In 1910 ...

Head coaching record

College

References

Additional sources

Article describing Musick's hiring
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musick, Jack 1920s births 1977 deaths USC Trojans football players Cornell Big Red football coaches Dartmouth Big Green football coaches Denver Pioneers football coaches High school football coaches in California Pasadena City Lancers football coaches Players of American football from Santa Ana, California Deaths from cancer in Texas