Peter R. Elliott (September 29, 1926 – January 4, 2013) 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 ...
player and coach. Elliott served as the head football coach at the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...
(1956), the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
(1957–1959), the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
(1960–1966), and the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...
(1973–1974), 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 56–72–11. From 1979 to 1996, Elliott served as executive director of the
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
.
College
Elliott was an All-American
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 ...
on the undefeated
1948 Michigan Wolverines football team
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form Britis ...
that won a
national championship
A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...
. He was also a standout
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 who was first-team All-
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
in 1948 and second-team All-Big Ten in 1949 as well as team
MVP
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
in 1948.
The 1948 team finished third in the eastern region of the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
.
[ Elliott is the only Michigan athlete to have earned 12 letters in varsity sports: football, basketball, and ]golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
.
At Michigan, Elliott played football with his brother Bump
Bump or Bumps may refer to:
* A collision or impact
* A raised protrusion on the skin such as a pimple, goose bump, prayer bump, lie bumps, etc.
Infrastructure and industry
* Coal mine bump, a seismic jolt occurring within a mine
* Bump (u ...
, who also became a well known college coach.
Coaching career
After college, Elliot served as an assistant coach at Oregon State
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...
(1949–50) and Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
(1951–55). In 1956, he took the head coaching job at Nebraska, lasting one year with a record of 4–6. The next year, he took over at California, where he remained until 1959 with a compiled record of 10–21. In 1958, he led the Golden Bears to an AAWU
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...
title and an appearance in the Rose Bowl, where they lost to Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
.
In 1960, Elliott succeeded Ray Eliot
Raymond Eliot "Butch" Nusspickel (June 13, 1905 – February 24, 1980) was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Illinois College from 1934 to 1936 and at th ...
at Illinois and was at the school until 1966. With the Illini, his record was 31–34–1, earning a Big Ten title and Rose Bowl victory over Washington during the 1963 season. He, along 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 ...
coaches Harry Combes
Harry Combes (March 3, 1915 – November 13, 1977), a native of Monticello, Illinois, served as head men's basketball coach at University of Illinois between 1947 and 1967.
Biography
Combes played high school basketball for Monticello High Scho ...
and Howie Braun, was pressured into resigning on March 19, 1967, by the university which was threatened with expulsion by the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
over a slush fund scandal. In 1973, he became head coach at Miami, where he remained for two years and compiled an 11–11 record.
Later life
Elliott served as athletic director at Miami from 1973 to 1978. In March 1978, Elliott rejoined his former boss, Bud Wilkinson, as an assistant with the NFL St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
. Elliott served as executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
from 1979 to 1996 and was serving on its board of trustees. Elliott was also a member of the Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
fraternity and was selected as a Significant Sig.
Elliott died at the age of 86 of congestive heart failure on January 4, 2013, in Canton, Ohio
Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...
.
Head coaching record
See also
*University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor The University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor, founded in 1978, recognizes University of Michigan athletes, coaches, and administrators who have made significant contributions to the university's athletic programs.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Pete
1926 births
2013 deaths
American men's basketball players
American football quarterbacks
California Golden Bears football coaches
Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches
Miami Hurricanes athletic directors
Miami Hurricanes football coaches
Michigan Wolverines football players
Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players
Michigan Wolverines men's golfers
National Football League announcers
Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches
Oklahoma Sooners football coaches
Oregon State Beavers football coaches
All-American college men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Bloomington, Illinois
Coaches of American football from Illinois
Players of American football from Illinois
Basketball players from Illinois
Golfers from Illinois