Jesse Barnum Hawley Jr. (March 25, 1887 – March 21, 1946) was an
American football coach, inventor, and president of
Hawley Products Company
Hawley Products Company is a manufacturer of loudspeaker components. The company is the oldest manufacturer of loudspeaker diaphragms in the world. Historically, the company produced a variety of products composed of fibrous or plastic materials, ...
.
He served as the head coach at the
University of Iowa from 1910 to 1915 and at
Dartmouth College from 1923 to 1928, 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 63–28–1. Hawley was the tenth head coach in
Iowa football history and led Dartmouth to a
national championship in 1925. In 1935, Hawley invented a tropical shaped,
pressed fiber sun helmet that was adopted in 1940 by the United States military. Approximately 250,000 of Hawley's military sun helmets were produced during
World War II by Hawley Products Company and the
International Hat Company.
Coaching career
Iowa
Hawley was hired by the
University of Iowa as its tenth head football coach in 1910. Iowa had not won the conference title in a decade, and Hawkeye fans were hoping Hawley could turn Iowa's fortunes around. School officials also hired
Nelson A. Kellogg
Nelson Austin Kellogg (January 30, 1881 – November 23, 1945) was a track and field, track athlete, American football, basketball, and baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Northern Illinois ...
in 1910 to be Iowa's athletic director. Supervision of intercollegiate athletics at Iowa had, since 1900, also been the responsibility of the head coach. Hawley, however, could focus solely on coaching the football team.
Hawley's Hawkeyes had a 5–2 record in 1910. The most notable game that season was a loss to
Missouri. Before traveling to
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
for the game, Hawley was warned not to take
Archie Alexander
Archibald Alphonso Alexander (May 14, 1888January 4, 1958) was an American architect and engineer. He was an early African-American graduate of the University of Iowa and the first to graduate from the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. ...
, Iowa's talented black
tackle
Tackle may refer to:
* In football:
** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football
** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football
** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking ...
, along for the game. Fearing troubles similar to what
Frank Holbrook Frank Kinney Holbrook (c. 1874 in Tipton, Iowa – October 29, 1916) was the first African American intercollegiate athlete at the University of Iowa and one of the first African Americans to participate on an American college varsity athletic squ ...
, Iowa's first black football player, encountered in a game against Missouri in 1896, Hawley agreed to leave Alexander behind. When the Iowa team arrived in Columbia, a mob of local townspeople met the team to ensure that Alexander was not with them. In view of the racial incidents as well as the unsportsmanlike treatment Hawkeye players received during the game, Hawley vowed that Iowa would never again play Missouri in football as long as he was the coach. It has been longer than that. The two neighboring state universities did not meet again until the
Insight Bowl in 2010.
A 1–3 start was cause for concern in 1911, but Iowa finished the year strong and had a solid 4–3 record in 1912. The biggest win of the 1912 season was a 20–7 victory over
Iowa State
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
, the last Iowa State team to win a conference title. It was also the final loss in the coaching career of
Clyde Williams, a former Iowa football star.
Hawley was poised to field his best Iowa team in 1913. The 1913 Hawkeyes had a 5–2 record and easily led the nation in scoring. Only a loss to
Chicago kept Iowa from the
Western Conference title. However, Iowa responded the following week with a 78–6 victory over
Northwestern, the team that cost Iowa a share of the Western Conference title in 1910. Iowa's 78 points is the most ever surrendered by a Northwestern team, and the 72-point loss is the second largest defeat in Northwestern school history. The Hawkeyes also defeated
Cornell College, 76–0, and
Indiana, 60–0. Iowa's 45–7 win over Iowa State was the most lopsided in
series history at the time and was Iowa's first Homecoming win.
Iowa defeated
Northern Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois ...
, 95–0, to open the 1914 season under Hawley. It is the largest margin of victory in Iowa history and easily Northern Iowa's biggest loss. However, many fans were critical of Iowa's win, stating that winning 95–0 did little to prepare Iowa for the rest of the season. They may have been correct; Iowa lost consecutive conference games by 7–0 scores to knock the Hawkeyes from the conference race yet again.
Iowa started 3–0 in 1915, but Iowa lost the final four games of the season, and criticism of Hawley mounted. Specifically, eleven of the best players in the Western Conference were Iowans playing for other member schools. Undefeated
Minnesota started four Iowans, Chicago and Northwestern each started three, and the star of the 1915
Wisconsin team was an Iowan as well. Five Iowans earned all-conference honors in 1915, and only one played for Iowa. In addition, Hawley only coached and lived in
Iowa City
Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...
during the season, and many Hawkeye fans felt the program needed a "full-time" coach. As a result, Hawley resigned after the 1915 season.
Hawley had a 24–18 record at Iowa. He was a quiet, reserved coach who believed in fundamentals and attention to detail. He was also a brilliant offensive coach who guided Iowa to some of the most lopsided wins in school history.
Dartmouth
When Hawley resigned at Iowa, he stated that he wanted to spend more time with his investment business. He was a successful investor and businessman before he arrived at Iowa. Hawley, a
Dartmouth College graduate, returned to
Hanover and continued his business after leaving Iowa in 1915.
In 1923,
Dartmouth's football team needed a head coach, and Hawley took the job and stayed for six years. Successful in private enterprise, he volunteered his services and coached his alma mater for free.
Under Hawley, Dartmouth went 22 games without a loss from 1923 to 1926. Hawley reached the pinnacle of success in 1925, when he led Dartmouth to an undefeated 8–0 season, for which Dartmouth claims the
national championship. Other than two national titles claimed by
Princeton in the 1930s under
Fritz Crisler, the 1925 Dartmouth national title is the last claimed by an
Ivy League school.
A Championship Tradition
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Head coaching record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, Jesse
1887 births
1946 deaths
Dartmouth Big Green football coaches
Dartmouth Big Green football players
Iowa Hawkeyes football coaches
Princeton Tigers football coaches
American milliners
Sportspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Educators from Minnesota
Players of American football from Saint Paul, Minnesota