Melvin Henry Taube (December 20, 1904 – June 15, 1979) 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 ...

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 ...

, 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, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Massachusetts State College, from 1931 to 1935 and at

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

from 1960 to 1969, 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 62–58–5. Taube was also the head basketball coach at Massachusetts State College (1933–1936),

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 money ...

(1945–1950), and Carleton (1950–1960), amassing a career

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

mark of 201–142 and winning four

Midwest Conference The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was ...

championships. He was the head baseball coach at Massachusetts State (1932–1935), Purdue (1947–1950), and Carleton (1951–1970), tallying a career

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

record of 93–74–3. A three-sport letterman, Taube played football, basketball, and baseball at Purdue.

Coaching career

Taube spent 20 seasons at

, arriving in the summer of 1950 as the head basketball and head baseball coach. He was also an assistant football coach until assuming the role of head football coach in 1960, following the death of Warren Beson. Taube served as Carleton's head football coach, head baseball 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 ...

until his retirement in 1970. In his honor, Carleton annually awards the Mel Taube Award to a varsity athlete for "dedication, loyalty, competitive spirit, and excellence in athletics." In 2008, the Carleton baseball field was named for Taube.

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

Baseball

References

External links

Mel Taube
at College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taube, Mel 1904 births 1979 deaths American football quarterbacks American men's basketball players United States Navy personnel of World War II Basketball coaches from Michigan Basketball players from Detroit Carleton Knights athletic directors Carleton Knights baseball coaches Carleton Knights football coaches Carleton Knights men's basketball coaches Indiana University alumni Purdue Boilermakers baseball coaches Purdue Boilermakers baseball players Purdue Boilermakers football coaches Purdue Boilermakers football players Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball coaches Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball players Players of American football from Detroit Sportspeople from Detroit UMass Minutemen baseball coaches UMass Minutemen basketball coaches UMass Minutemen football coaches United States Navy officers