Stephen Sebo (July 15, 1914 – December 10, 1989) 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 ...

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, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He played baseball and football at Michigan State University, from which he graduated in 1937. He then played minor league baseball and coached sports at

Petoskey High School Petoskey High School is a public, magnet high school located in Petoskey, Michigan Petoskey ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat and largest city in Emmet County. Part of Northern Michigan, Petoskey is a po ...

in Petoskey, Michigan. During the World War II era, he served in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

and was discharged after 5 years with the rank of major. After the war, Sebo was the head football coach at

Alma College Alma College is a private liberal arts college in Alma, Michigan. It enrolls approximately 1,400 students and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Alma College is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and offers bachelor ...

from 1946 to 1948 and at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

from 1954 to 1959, compiling a career college football record of 33–42–2. The highlight of Sebo's tenure at Penn was the 1959 season, in which the Quakers won their first Ivy League championship. As it turned out, even that wasn't enough to save his job; school officials had already decided before the season that his contract would not be renewed. He also coached

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 ...

at Alma from 1946 to 1949, tallying a mark of 36–24. After Sebo was fired from his post at Penn following the 1959 season, he became the general manager of the New York Titans, a newly formed team of the upstart American Football League that was renamed as the New York Jets in 1963. Sebo left the Titans in 1962 to become the

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 an ...

at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Head coaching record

College football

References

1914 births 1989 deaths American football halfbacks Baseball catchers Alma Scots athletic directors Alma Scots football coaches Alma Scots men's basketball coaches Amarillo Army Air Field Sky Giants football coaches Harvard Crimson football coaches Michigan State Spartans baseball players Michigan State Spartans football coaches Michigan State Spartans football players New York Jets executives Penn Quakers football coaches Virginia Cavaliers athletic directors High school baseball coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in Michigan High school football coaches in Michigan Minor league baseball players United States Army Air Forces officers Sportspeople from Battle Creek, Michigan Players of American football from Michigan Baseball players from Michigan Military personnel from Michigan {{1940s-collegefootball-coach-stub