Kingston is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the western bank of the Susquehanna River opposite Wilkes-Barre. Kingston was first settled in the early 1770s, and incorporated as a borough in 1857. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,349, making it the most populous borough in Luzerne County.
Otto Everett Graham Jr. was an American professional football quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Graham is regarded by critics as one of the most dominant players of his era and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955, making ten championship appearances, and winning seven of them. With Graham at quarterback, the Browns posted a record of 105 wins, 17 losses, and 4 ties, including a 9–3 win–loss record in the AAFC and NFL playoffs. He holds the NFL record for career average yards gained per pass attempt, with 8.63. He also holds the record for the highest career winning percentage for an NFL starting quarterback, at 81.0%. Long-time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a friend of Graham's, once called him "as great of a quarterback as there ever was."
Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football", an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and defense. Crisler developed two-platoon football while serving as head coach at the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1947. He also coached at the University of Minnesota (1930–1931) and Princeton University (1932–1937). Before coaching, he played football at the University of Chicago under Amos Alonzo Stagg, who nicknamed him Fritz after violinist Fritz Kreisler.
PennWest Clarion, formally Clarion University of Pennsylvania, is a public university in Clarion, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Pennsylvania Western University. The institution was originally founded in 1867 as the "Carrier Seminary." Prior to adopting its current name in 2022, it had gone by several different names over the course of its history, most recently "Pennsylvania Western University, Clarion." It now offers associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees, as well as certificate programs and a Doctor of Nursing Practice.
Frank Gansz was an American football coach whose career spanned nearly 40 years. He served as the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL) from 1987 to 1988, compiling a record of 8–22–1.
Wyoming Seminary, founded in 1844, is a Methodist college preparatory school located in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The "Lower School," which consists of preschool 8th-grade students, is located in Forty Fort. The "Upper School," comprising 9th-grade to postgraduate students, is located in Kingston. It is near the Susquehanna River and the city of Wilkes-Barre. Locally and in some publications, it is sometimes referred to as "Sem." As a boarding school, only Upper School students may board on campus. Slightly more than one-third of the Upper School student body resides on campus.
Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at Albright College (1935–1936), Syracuse University (1946), and most notably Michigan State College (1947–1953), where his 1952 squad won a national championship. Munn retired from coaching in 1953 to assume duties as Michigan State's athletic director, a position he held until 1971. Each year, the Michigan State Spartans football team hands out the "Biggie Munn Award" to the team's most motivational player. Michigan State's Munn Ice Arena, built in 1974, is named in his honor. Munn was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1959, and, in 1961, he became Michigan State's first inductee into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. He authored the coaching textbook Michigan State Multiple Offense in 1953.
Norries Wilson is an American football coach and former player. Since 2017, he has been the director of player development at the University of Minnesota. He was the first African-American head football coach in the Ivy League when he began his tenure with the Columbia University football team in 2006.
Admiral Robert Joseph Papp Jr. is a retired admiral of the United States Coast Guard who served as the 24th commandant from 2010 to 2014. He led the largest component of the United States Department of Homeland Security, with 42,000 active duty, 8,200 Reserve, 8,000 civilian, and 31,000 Auxiliary personnel.
John Farrell "Big John" Macklin was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, baseball and track and field, and a college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University from 1911 to 1915. With a five-year record of 29–5, he has the highest winning percentage of any football coach in Michigan State history. Macklin coached the Michigan State Spartans football team to its first ever victories over Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Penn State. He was also the athletic director at Michigan Agricultural and coached the school's basketball, baseball, and track and field teams. Macklin tallied marks of 48–38 as head basketball coach (1910–1916) and 52–27 as head baseball coach (1911–1915).
The 1942 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1942 Big Ten Conference football season. The 1942 team compiled a record of 7–3 and was ranked No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll. The team's line that included Albert Wistert, Merv Pregulman, Julius Franks, Elmer Madar, Robert Kolesar, Bill Pritula and Philip Sharpe and was known as the "Seven Oak Posts."
Norman Joseph Daniels was an American athlete and coach. He played basketball, football and baseball for the University of Michigan from 1928 to 1932. He served for 39 years as a professor of physical education and coach at Wesleyan University from 1934 to 1973, including 33 years as the school's head baseball coach, 19 years as the head football coach, nine years as the head wrestling coach, three years as the head basketball coach, and two years as the head squash coach. He led the Wesleyan football team to four consecutive undefeated seasons from 1945 to 1948.
The United States Coast Guard Academy's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Bears. They compete in NCAA Division III as members of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Through the 2016 season, the Bears played football in the New England Football Conference, but after that season moved their football program into the NEWMAC, which started sponsoring the sport in 2017.
Nelson Wallace "Nels" Nitchman was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Union College in Schenectady, New York, from 1936 to 1940, at Colby College in 1941, and at the United States Coast Guard Academy from 1946 to 1958. Nitchman was also the head basketball coach at Union from 1933 to 1941 and at the Coast Guard Academy from 1942 to 1954, tallying a career college basketball mark of 130–146.
Michael Joseph “Mo” Scarry was an American football player and coach. He grew up in Pennsylvania, and played football in college at Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania and went on to join the Cleveland Rams in the National Football League (NFL) as a center following a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II. The Rams moved to Los Angeles after winning the 1945 NFL championship, and Scarry elected to stay in Cleveland and play for the Cleveland Browns under coach Paul Brown in the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The Browns won the AAFC championship in 1946 and 1947 while Scarry was on the team.
Robert E. Fitch was an American athlete and coach. He broke the world record in the discus throw in 1946 with a mark of 54.93 m. He developed a rotational technique referred to as the "Minnesota Whip" and delivered a masters thesis on the subject. His training mate Fortune Gordien went on to break world records and win Olympic medals.
The 1963 Tangerine Bowl was an NCAA College Division game following the 1963 season, between the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and the Coast Guard Bears. Western Kentucky quarterback Sharon Miller was named the game's most valuable player.
Robert Hoff was an American football player and coach. He was a three-time letter letterwinner at the University of Iowa from 1948 to 1950, starring as an end. He served as the head football coach at Iowa City High School in Iowa City, Iowa and at the University of Central Missouri for one season in 1961. He also served as an assistant varsity line coach at the United States Coast Guard Academy under head coach Otto Graham.
Aaron Keen is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for Washington University in St. Louis, a position he has held since 2020. Keen served as head football coach the Illinois College from 2003 to 2007 and as the interim head football coach at Minnesota State University, Mankato from 2012 to 2013. He has also been an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Todd Armstrong Fitch is an American college football coach and former player. He is a senior advisor and offensive analyst at Louisiana State University. Fitch has served as an assistant coach at various programs since the mid-1980s. He was the interim head coach at Vanderbilt University for the final game of the 2020 season.
