Oscar Martin "Ossie" Solem (December 13, 1891 – October 26, 1970) 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 ...

player, coach of football and

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 college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Luther College in

Decorah, Iowa Decorah is a city in and the county seat of Winneshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,587 at the time of the 2020 census. Decorah is located at the intersection of State Highway 9 and U.S. Route 52, and is the largest commun ...

(1920), Drake University (1921–1931), the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

(1932–1936), Syracuse University (1937–1945), and Springfield College (1946–1957), compiling a career college football record of 162–117–20. From 1913 until 1920, Solem was the head coach of the

Minneapolis Marines The Minneapolis Marines were an early professional football team that existed from 1905 until 1924. The team was later resurrected from 1929 to 1930 under the Minneapolis Red Jackets name. The Marines were owned locally by Minneapolitans John Dunn ...

, prior to that team's entry into 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). During his time with the Marines, Solem introduced the team to the

single-wing formation In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a h ...

, developed by the famed coach, Pop Warner, and used by the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, where Solem had played football. Solem was also the head basketball coach at Drake University for four seasons, from 1921 to 1925, tallying a mark of 37–31.

Playing and early coaching career

Solem played

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at the

for Henry L. Williams from 1910 to 1912. He then began his coaching career, coaching for a pre-

(NFL) professional football franchise called the

. He coached there for three years from 1913 to 1915 before coaching a few years of high school football at East Des Moines High School and South High School of Minneapolis. Solem began his college coaching career at Luther College in 1920. After one year there, he was named head coach and athletic director at Drake University in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

in 1921. Solem served as Drake's head football coach and athletic director for 11 years from 1921 to 1931. From 1926 to 1931, he also served as the director of the

Drake Relays The Drake Relays (officially the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom) is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', i ...

Coaching career at Iowa

In 1932, Solem signed a three-year contract to succeed

Burt Ingwersen Burton Aherns Ingwersen (August 29, 1898 – July 15, 1969) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach of football and baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Iowa from 1924 to 1931, compiling ...

as the 13th head football coach at the

. He took over an Iowa football program that had recently been suspended from athletic competition in 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 ...

for a month. More importantly, the Hawkeye program was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. Since Iowa was a predominantly agricultural state, the Depression hit the Hawkeye athletic program particularly hard. The school could not even afford to pay Solem his full salary when he was first hired. After winning the opening game of the 1932 season, Iowa lost their final seven games of the year. In the off-season, Solem loudly complained that athletes were being discriminated against in Iowa City and were not being hired for normal student jobs, probably as a result of Iowa's recent conference suspension. An independent investigator substantiated Solem's claims. Hopes were not high in 1933, but Iowa responded with a 5–3 final record and Hawkeyes

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 ...

Joe Laws Joseph Ray Laws (June 16, 1911 – August 22, 1979) was an American football player. He played his entire career with the Green Bay Packers, winning three World Championships, and was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1972. P ...

was named the Big Ten MVP. Solem's contract was extended two years, and with the departure of Iowa's athletic director, Solem was appointed to that position as well. Meanwhile, he struggled with a lack of cooperation from fellow Big Ten schools in schedule meetings. Each conference member was supposed to be guaranteed five conference games, but due to Iowa's recent suspension, other Big Ten schools were more accommodating to Notre Dame, a non-conference school, than they were to the Hawkeyes. Solem fought tirelessly to have Iowa regarded as a member of equal standing within the conference. After two season opening wins, Iowa failed to win any of its final six games in 1934, and a season that started optimistically ended with a 2–5–1 record. Iowa managed to bounce back the following year with a respectable 4–2–2 record in 1935 behind the play of captain Dick Crayne and the sensational Ozzie Simmons. After the 1935 season, Solem worked with the president of the university at the time to improve the job situation for athletes in Iowa City. Their reforms helped Solem bring in what Solem called "the finest group of freshmen during my tenure". Many of the athletes Solem successfully recruited to Iowa would become the foundation for the 1939 Hawkeye team, nicknamed the "Ironmen", which included

Nile Kinnick Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a trainin ...

and Erwin Prasse. A conflict between Solem and Ozzie Simmons overshadowed the 1936 season, which ended in a 3–4–1 record. After a 52–0 loss to Minnesota, Simmons quit the team for a couple days. Simmons stated that he felt Solem had been too critical of him for Iowa's failures during the 1936 season. Simmons was convinced to return to the team a few days later. Before the final game of the season, reports were heard that Solem was leaving at the end of the year. Iowa defeated a heavily favored, nationally ranked Temple team, coached by Pop Warner, 25–0, to end Solem's coaching career at Iowa. After the 1936 season, Solem announced he was leaving Iowa for Syracuse University. Later, Solem wrote, "I went down to Iowa City for the Iowa-Minnesota game, the first time I had been on the campus since the year after we left Iowa. As I sat there watching the game and admiring the beauty and growth of the campus, recalling the many friends we had in that lovely town, I could not bring myself to have any feeling of dislike or hate, but rather a feeling of regret...and gratefulness for having once been a part of that great institution."75 Years With The Fighting Hawkeyes, by Bert McCrane & Dick Lamb, Page 156 ()

Later coaching career

Solem coached at Syracuse from 1937 to 1945. During his time at Syracuse, he tutored a young assistant coach named Bud Wilkinson, who went on to coach the Oklahoma Sooners and win three national championships. After his time with the Orange, he coached at Springfield College in

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from 1946 to 1957, compiling a 58–33–7 record. Solem coached a total of 37 seasons of college football, with a combined record of 162–117–20 at five schools.

Death and legacy

Solem died at a hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 26, 1970. One of his former players said about Solem, "He was a better offensive coach than he was a defensive coach...He was a fine, clean living man, and he was very well thought of in athletic circles." Former player Ozzie Simmons remarked, "He probably could have been tougher (on the players), but he was the finest gentleman I've ever been around."The Ironmen: The 1939 Hawkeyes, by Scott Fisher, Page 28 ()

Head coaching record

Professional football

College football

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Solem, Ossie 1891 births 1950 deaths American football ends Drake Bulldogs athletic directors Drake Bulldogs football coaches Drake Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Iowa Hawkeyes athletic directors Iowa Hawkeyes football coaches Luther Norse football coaches Minneapolis Marines coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Springfield Pride football coaches Syracuse Orange football coaches High school football coaches in Iowa High school football coaches in Minnesota United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army personnel of World War II South High School (Minnesota) alumni Sportspeople from Minneapolis Coaches of American football from Minnesota Players of American football from Minneapolis Basketball coaches from Minnesota Educators from Minnesota American people of Norwegian descent Sports coaches from Minneapolis