Nelson H. Norgren (September 10, 1891 – December 31, 1974) 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 ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, 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 ...

player and coach. As a coach, he led the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

to a national AAU basketball championship in 1916. He later served as the basketball coach at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

from 1921 to 1957.

Playing career

A native of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Norgren graduated from North Division High School in 1910. He attended the University of Chicago, where he played football, basketball, track, and baseball, winning 12 letters. He played football for

Amos Alonzo Stagg Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfiel ...

. He was named to

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

College Football All-America Team The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term '' All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Footbal ...

s in 1912 (second-team) and 1913 (third-team).

Coaching career

Football coach

Norgren was the head coach of football at

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

from

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

through

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...

. While there, he accumulated a record of 13–11 (.542).

Basketball coach

In 1914, Nelson became the athletic director and basketball coach at the University of Utah. His team won the 1916 AAU national championship. In 1917, he coached

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

to a second-place finish in the 1917 AAU tournament. In 1921, Norgren was hired by his former coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, as the University of Chicago's assistant football coach and head basketball coach. He also coached the school's baseball team from 1922 to 1926. In 1942, Norgren was elected president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He retired as Chicago's basketball coach in 1957. In his 34 seasons as the head basketball coach at Chicago, his teams had a winning record in only three seasons: 1924, 1948, and 1949. His teams had back-to-back winless seasons in 1951 (0–18) and 1952 (0–15) and had a combined record of 1–49 from 1951–1953. Norgren was inducted into the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame and the University of Chicago Hall of Fame.

Later years

Norgren retired in 1957 and moved to Mill Valley, California. He died there in 1975 at age 83 after a long illness.

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

Norgren's record as basketball coach at the University of Chicago was as follows: *1921–22 — 15–15 *1922–23 — 6–9 *1923–24 — 11–6 *1924–25 — 3–14 *1925–26 — 5–11 *1926–27 — 6–11 *1927–28 — 8–9 *1928–29 — 5–11 *1929–30 — 5–12 *1930–31 — 8–9 *1931–32 — 2–15 *1932–33 — 2–16 *1933–34 — 5–15 *1934–35 — 2–18 *1935–36 — 6–14 *1936–37 — 4–16 *1937–38 — 6–12 *1938–39 — 9–11 *1939–40 — 5–14 *1940–41 — 6–14 *1941–42 — 2–19 *1944–45 — 7–8 *1945–46 — 6–14 *1946–47 — 4–13 *1947–48 — 2–16 *1948–49 — 10–8 *1949–50 — 10–8 *1950–51 — 0–18 *1951–52 — 0–15 *1952–53 — 1–16 *1953–54 — 6–9 *1954–55 — 6–13 *1955–56 — 7–9 *1956–57 — 6–11 *Overall record at University of Chicago — 186–429 (.302)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norgren, Nelson 1891 births 1974 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Chicago Maroons baseball coaches Chicago Maroons baseball players Chicago Maroons football coaches Chicago Maroons football players Chicago Maroons men's basketball coaches Chicago Maroons men's basketball players Utah Utes baseball coaches Utah Utes football coaches Utah Utes men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago Players of American football from Chicago Baseball players from Chicago