Marvin McDowell Dickinson (December 31, 1877 – April 20, 1951) 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 ...

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 ...

player and coach. From 1900 to 1903, he played football and baseball at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. He served as the head coach of Georgia football team in 1903 and 1905, and the head coach of the Georgia baseball team in 1901, 1904, and 1905. Dickinson also played professional baseball in the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

in 1904.

Playing career

Dickinson transferred to Georgia from

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 ...

in 1900 and had a significant impact on baseball and football at Georgia. In football, he played halfback on the 1900, 1901 and 1902 teams. He was selected All-Southern in 1902. He was captain of the baseball team in 1902 and 1903 and played

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

and

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

Coaching career

Dickinson became the second Georgia football coach to have attended the University of Georgia when he was hired to coach the 1903 season. He was away from

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in the fall of 1904 while playing in the Texas League, but he returned to coach Georgia football again in 1905. Dickinson was not able to achieve much success as the head coach of Georgia and only managed a 4–9 record over the course of his two years at Georgia. Dickinson also served as the baseball coach in 1901. In 1902 and 1903, the team was coached by

William Ayres Reynolds William Ayres Reynolds (December 30, 1874 – August 10, 1928) was an American football player and coach of football and baseball. He played Junior varsity team, scrub football at Princeton University, serving as team captain in 1894, and served a ...

, who was also the head coach of the football team. When Reynolds left after the 1902 football season and the 1903 baseball season, Dickinson resumed his role as baseball coach for the 1904 and 1905 seasons. There is no information available on the 1901 season, but Dickinson had a coaching record of 18–14 in his last two seasons as baseball coach. In 1910, Dickinson was hired as an assistant coach at the University School for Boys in

Stone Mountain, Georgia Stone Mountain is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 6,703 according to the 2020 US Census. Stone Mountain is in the eastern part of DeKalb County and is a suburb of Atlanta that encompasses nearly 1.7 square mil ...

Late life

After he left coaching, Dickinson went into the newspaper business. He died in 1950.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

* Reed, Thomas Walter (1949). Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ''History of the University of Georgia; Chapter XVII: Athletics at the University from the Beginning Through 1947'
imprint pages 3464-3477, 3483
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Melvin M. 1877 births 1951 deaths American football halfbacks Baseball catchers Baseball third basemen Georgia Bulldogs baseball coaches Georgia Bulldogs baseball players Georgia Bulldogs football coaches Georgia Bulldogs football players All-Southern college football players Players of American football from Savannah, Georgia Baseball players from Savannah, Georgia