Joel Harry Eaves (June 3, 1914 – July 18, 1991) was an American
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 ...
and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player, 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 and ...
. He is perhaps most known for coaching basketball at his alma mater, the
Auburn Tigers
The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
of
Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
. He is the all-time winningest coach in Auburn basketball history. He was also once athletic director for the
Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...
. Eaves was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.
Early years
Eaves was born on the
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
state line in
Copperhill, Tennessee
Copperhill is a city in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 443 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Copperhill is located in a geological region known as the Copper Basi ...
.
[ He grew up in ]Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and attended Tech High School.
Playing career
Eaves played on the Auburn Tigers basketball
The Auburn Tigers men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball team that represents Auburn University. The school competes in the Southeastern Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). ...
, football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, 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 tea ...
teams
Basketball
Eaves was captain of the basketball team his senior year, an all-around guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
. He stood 6 feet 3 inches and weighed 190 pounds. The head coach of the basketball team was Ralph "Shug" Jordan.
Football
On coach Jack Meagher
John Francis Meagher (July 5, 1894 – December 7, 1968) was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics administrator.
Meagher played football for the University of Notre Dame in 1916, rising ...
's football team, Eaves was an end
End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to:
End
*In mathematics:
** End (category theory)
** End (topology)
**End (graph theory)
** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous)
**End (endomorphism)
*In sports and games
**End (gridiron footbal ...
, selected All- SEC by the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
in 1936. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 1937 NFL Draft
The 1937 National Football League Draft was the second draft held by the National Football League (NFL). The draft took place December 12, 1936, at the Hotel Lincoln in New York City. The draft consisted of 10 rounds, with 100 player selections, ...
by the Boston Redskins
The Washington Commanders, an American football team belonging to the National Football League (NFL), have also played as the Boston Braves, Boston Redskins, Washington Redskins, and Washington Football Team. Founded in 1932, the team has won five ...
but never played in the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL).
Baseball
He pitched on the baseball team.
Coaching career
Sewanee
Before coaching at Auburn, he coached the Sewanee Tigers
The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 Province 4 of the Epis ...
basketball team.
Auburn
Eaves coached the Auburn men's basketball program from 1949 to 1963. He guided Auburn to its first SEC championship in 1960, and was named SEC Coach of the Year that season. Eaves made famous the shuffle offense
The shuffle offense is an offensive strategy in basketball, developed in the early 1950s by Bruce Drake at the University of Oklahoma. It was later used by Bob Spear, who was the first head basketball coach of the United States Air Force Academy i ...
while at Auburn. After 14 seasons at Auburn, Eaves finished with a record of 213–100 (.681), making him the winningest men's basketball coach in Auburn history.
Eaves also assisted with the football team while at Auburn, helping with the freshmen ends for two years before coaching varsity defensive ends
Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football.
This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...
, contributing to Auburn's 1957 national championship.
Joel Eaves was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1978. Auburn's Memorial Coliseum was renamed after Eaves to Joel H. Eaves Memorial Coliseum in 1987, and later to Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum
Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. The arena, which opened in 1969, is best known as the former home of the Auburn men's and women's basketball, women' ...
in 1993.
Administrative career
Eaves was the 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 and ...
for the Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...
from 1963 to 1979. He hired Vince Dooley
Vincent Joseph Dooley (September 4, 1932 – October 28, 2022) was an American college football coach. He was the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, as well as the University of Georgia's (UGA) athletic director from 1979 t ...
as football coach.
Head coaching record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaves, Joel
1914 births
1991 deaths
American football ends
American men's basketball players
Auburn Tigers baseball players
Auburn Tigers men's basketball coaches
Auburn Tigers men's basketball players
Auburn Tigers football coaches
Auburn Tigers football players
Baseball pitchers
Basketball coaches from Georgia (U.S. state)
Basketball players from Atlanta
Georgia Bulldogs athletic directors
Guards (basketball)
People from Polk County, Tennessee
Players of American football from Atlanta
Sewanee Tigers men's basketball coaches
Baseball players from Atlanta