James O. "Jerry" Huntsman (November 29, 1929 – April 5, 2005) 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

Earlham College Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...

(1961–1964), and

Indiana State University Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

(1966–1972), compiling a career

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 ...

record of 72–27–1.

Playing career

Huntsman played football as 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 ...

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832 by several Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, it enrolls nearly 900 students. The college offers an undergraduate liberal arts cur ...

from 1948 through 1951, where he was selected ‘All-State’ in his senior season. He was also awarded with the Robert E. Vaughan Award as the college's outstanding athlete following his senior year. During his U.S. Army stint; Huntsman was named to the 'All-Army' Track & Field team as a

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

thrower.

Coaching career

Huntsman began his coaching career as an assistant football coach in 1954 at Waveland High School

Waveland, Indiana Waveland is a town in Brown Township, Montgomery County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 427 at the 2020 census. History Waveland was platted by John Milligan in 1835. The settlement began as a resting place at a good spring be ...

and then moved on to Covington High School,

Covington, Indiana Covington is a city in, and the county seat of, Fountain County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,645 at the 2010 census. History Fountain County was formed on April 1, 1826. Later that year, the county seat was established at Coving ...

, leading the Trojans for the 1955 season. He served as the head basketball coach at Waveland High, leading the Hornets to a 20–4 record and the Montgomery County Tournament title. From 1956–58, he was the head coach for the Crawfordsville High Artesians

Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville is a city in Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The city is the county seat of Montgomery County, the only cha ...

. building a record of 14–12–2; his next stop was at Huntington High School

Huntington, Indiana Huntington, known as the "Lime City", is the largest city in and the county seat of Huntington County, Indiana, Huntington County, Indiana, United States. It is in Huntington Township, Huntington County, Indiana, Huntington and Union Township, Hun ...

; his Vikings didn't lose a game during his 2 seasons; tallying a mark of 19–0–1. Following the 1960 school year, he moved to

and spent four highly successful seasons as the head coaching job. In 1965, he accepted an assistant coaching position at rapidly growing

with the understanding that he would be named the head coach for the 1966 season.

College career

Huntsman's Quakers lost one game during his four-year tenure; racking up a record of 29–3 and building a national reputation for defense; in 1961, his Quakers defense was ranked 3rd in the nation. He left his hometown of Richmond, Indiana (home of Earlham College) with a career coaching record of 62–15–3. In 1965, he arrived in Terre Haute as an offensive assistant (backs) and joined a staff, one season removed from an

Indiana Collegiate Conference The Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1951 to 1978. It consisted solely of schools in Indiana. The charter members of the conference were Indiana State University, Butler University, ...

championship. His 1968 team, went 9-1, narrowly missing an invitation to the Grantland Rice Bowl. He retired from coaching in 1973, prematurely due to poor health; he accepted a position in the athletic department; he ranked 2nd in wins (43) and 1st in winning percentage (.632) at Indiana State; he is currently 3rd in wins but maintains his position as the winningest coach in 100+ seasons of Sycamore football. He also holds a 5–2 record in homecoming games. He retired as the Associate Athletics Director in 1982; assisting the promotion of the Indiana State athletic department from Division II to Division I and helping secure admission to the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

Family

Huntsman is the son of former

and

head coach Owen Huntsman; himself a highly successful football coach. Huntsman's brother,

Stan Huntsman Stanley Houser Huntsman (March 20, 1932 – November 23, 2016) was an American track and field (athletics) coach. He was a men's assistant coach during the 1976 Summer Olympics and the men's head coach of the American team of the 1988 Summer Olymp ...

, was a very successful track and field coach at

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, and

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huntsman, Jerry 1929 births 2005 deaths Earlham Quakers football coaches Indiana State Sycamores athletic directors Indiana State Sycamores football coaches Wabash Little Giants football players High school football coaches in Indiana Players of American football from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania