James E. Peele (June 12, 1907 – October 17, 1976) 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, coach of football and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...

from 1936 to 1947, compiling a record of 38–34–1. Peele was also the head baseball coach at Buffalo in 1949 and from 1952 to 1967, tallying a mark of 177–66. A native of Staunton, Illinois, Peele played college 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 ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

. He came to Buffalo 1934 as an assistant football coach under George Van Bibber and succeeded him as head football coach and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

in 1936. Peele remained athletic director until 1969. He died on October 17, 1976, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

Head coaching record

References

1907 births 1976 deaths American football quarterbacks Buffalo Bulls athletic directors Buffalo Bulls baseball coaches Buffalo Bulls football coaches Purdue Boilermakers football players People from Staunton, Illinois {{1930s-collegefootball-coach-stub