Tom Hearden

Last updated

Tom Hearden
Tom Hearden.jpg
Biographical details
Born(1904-09-08)September 8, 1904
Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedDecember 27, 1964(1964-12-27) (aged 60)
Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
Playing career
1924–1926 Notre Dame
1927–1928 Green Bay Packers
1929 Chicago Bears
Position(s) Halfback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1930–1933 Racine St. Catherine's HS (WI)
1934–1935 Racine Park HS (WI)
1936 Green Bay East HS (WI)
1946–1952 St. Norbert
1954–1955 Green Bay Packers (assistant)
1956 Wisconsin (assistant)
Head coaching record
Overall40–14 (college)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
2 Midlands (1950, 1952)

Thomas Francis "Red" Hearden (September 8, 1904 – December 27, 1964) was an American football player and coach.

Contents

Tom Hearden was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. As a boy, his family move to Green Bay, Wisconsin. From 1920–22 He played in the backfield for Green Bay East High School's football team with his brothers and Jim Crowley. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame, under head coach Knute Rockne, and professionally in the National Football League (NFL) as a halfback for the Green Bay Packers, under head coach Curly Lambeau, and the Chicago Bears, under head coach George Halas.

College career

College football

As a sophomore, he was a member of the 1924 National Championship team that featured the Four Horsemen backfield (including Crowley). That team defeated Stanford, led by Ernie Nevers and coached by Pop Warner, in the 1925 Rose Bowl, although Hearden did not appear in that game. He was team captain his senior year and a three-year letterman.

Coaching career

In 1930, Hearden coached for the St. Catherine's High School (Racine, Wisconsin) program, obtaining a record of 26–3–3 and two Catholic conference titles. [1] He coached for Racine Park for the 1934–35 seasons, and posted an 8–5–3 record. In 1936, Hearden returned to his alma mater, Green Bay East High School, and achieved a 51–3–1 mark through 1942. East won 32 straight games at one point and won or shared six conference titles in that seven-year stretch. [2]

He joined the navy in 1943. After the war, he returned to Wisconsin. As the head football coach at St. Norbert College from 1946 to 1952, he compiled a record of 40–14. He joined the Green Bay Packers in 1954 and stayed for two years, leaving to serve as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin in 1956. He returned to the Packers in 1957. Later that same year, he suffered a stroke, ending his coaching career. [3]

Awards and honors

Head coaching record

College

YearTeamOverallConferenceStandingBowl/playoffs
St. Norbert Green Knights (Independent)(1946–1947)
1946 St. Norbert 8–0
1947 St. Norbert7–1
St. Norbert Green Knights (Midlands Conference)(1948–1952)
1948 St. Norbert4–51–2T–3rd
1949 St. Norbert4–42–12nd
1950 St. Norbert 7–04–01st
1951 St. Norbert4–42–23rd
1952 St. Norbert 6–04–01st
St. Norbert:40–1413–5
Total:40–14
      National championship        Conference title        Conference division title or championship game berth

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curly Lambeau</span> American football player, coach, and executive (1898–1965)

Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Lambeau, along with his friend and fellow Green Bay, Wisconsin, native George Whitney Calhoun, founded the Green Bay Packers in 1919. He served as team captain in the team's first year before becoming player-coach in 1920. As a player, Lambeau lined up as a halfback, which in the early years of the NFL was the premier position. He was the team's primary runner and passer, accounting for 35 touchdowns in 77 games. He won his only NFL championship as a player in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hornung</span> American football player (1935–2020)

Paul Vernon Hornung, nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966. He played on teams that won four NFL titles and the first Super Bowl. He is the first Heisman Trophy winner to win the NFL Most Valuable Player award, and be inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. Packers coach Vince Lombardi stated that Hornung was "the greatest player I ever coached".

Richard Franklin Mirer is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the second overall pick of the 1993 NFL Draft. In his first season, Mirer set the rookie records for passing yards, attempts, and completions. Unable to duplicate his success, however, Mirer was traded after four seasons to the Chicago Bears. He spent the remainder of his career with the New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and Detroit Lions, mostly as a backup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four Horsemen (American football)</span> 1920s group of University of Notre Dame football players

The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame comprised a group of American football players at the University of Notre Dame under coach Knute Rockne. They were the backfield of Notre Dame's 1924 football team. The players that made up this group were Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden.

Lisle William "Liz" Blackbourn was an American football coach in Wisconsin, most notably as the third head coach of the Green Bay Packers, from 1954 through 1957, and the final head coach at Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Ronzani</span> American football player and coach (1909–1975)

Eugene A. Ronzani was a professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He was the second head coach of the Green Bay Packers, from 1950 to 1953, and resigned with two games remaining in the 1953 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Crowley</span> American football player and coach (1902–1986)

James Harold "Sleepy Jim" Crowley was an American football player and coach. He gained fame as one-fourth of the University of Notre Dame's legendary "Four Horsemen" backfield where he played halfback from 1922 to 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Bay East High School</span> Public secondary school in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay East High School is a public high school in the Green Bay Area Public School District serving the near-east side of Green Bay, Wisconsin and parts of Bellevue and Allouez. Founded in 1856, the school has occupied its current building since 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notre Dame Box</span>

The Notre Dame Box is a variation of the single-wing formation used in American football, with great success by Notre Dame in college football and the Green Bay Packers of the 1920s and 1930s in the NFL. Green Bay's coach, Curly Lambeau, learned the Notre Dame Box while playing for Knute Rockne in the late 1910s. Rockne learned it from Jesse Harper, who learned it from coach Amos Alonzo Stagg. It contained two ends, and four backs. The formation often featured an unbalanced line where the center was not strictly in the center of the line, but close to the weakside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Isbell</span> American football player and coach (1915–1985)

Cecil Frank Isbell was an American football quarterback and coach. He played 5 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Green Bay Packers, leading them to the NFL Championship in 1939. He retired after the 1942 season to become an assistant coach at his alma mater, Purdue University, and the following year became its head coach for three seasons.

John "Weenie" Wilson was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach and teacher at the Dodgeville High School in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. He was a nationally ranked punter while at the University of Wisconsin and played for the Green Bay Packers before enlisting in the United States Navy prior to World War II. He is the only coach to be inducted into all three Wisconsin high school sports halls of fame, for football, basketball, and baseball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mohardt</span> American football and baseball player (1898–1961)

John Henry Mohardt was an American football and baseball player and medical doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Catherine's High School (Racine, Wisconsin)</span> Private, coeducational school in Racine, Wisconsin, United States

St. Catherine's High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Racine, Wisconsin. It is a member of Siena Catholic Schools of Racine and the Catholic Schools of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Terlep</span> American football player and coach

George Rudolph "Duke" Terlep was an American football player, coach, and general manager who was on a college national championship team at Notre Dame in 1943 and won another championship while playing for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1948. Terlep also won two Grey Cup championships in the Canadian Football League (CFL), once as an assistant with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and once as the general manager of the Ottawa Rough Riders.

The 1919 Green Bay Packers season was their first season of competitive football. The team was formed by Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun with help from the Indian Packing Company. Lambeau served as team captain, the position closest related to the modern position of head coach, while Willard Ryan served as the official head coach. The club posted a 10–1 record against other teams in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Richard Paul "Red" Smith was an American player and coach in both professional baseball and professional football. A native of Brokaw, Wisconsin, Smith stood 5'9" (175 cm) tall, and weighed 215 pounds (97 kg). A catcher in baseball, he batted and threw right-handed. He played under three of the early 20th century's most famous American sporting coaches—football's Knute Rockne and Curly Lambeau, and baseball's John McGraw.

James David Haluska was an American football quarterback who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). Selected in the 30th and final round of the 1954 NFL draft, he played in five games in the 1956 season, where he completed one of four passes for a total of eight yards.

Michael J. Stock is a former American football player and coach. He coached for 26 years at the collegiate level, 17 years in the National Football League (NFL), one year in the United States Football League (USFL), and one year coaching high school football in Ohio; altogether he coached 14 different teams. His career included four and a half seasons, from 1978 to 1982, as the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University, where he coached the Eastern Michigan Hurons through most of a school-record 27-game losing streak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Biolo</span> American football player (1916–2003)

John Robert Biolo Sr. was a guard in the National Football League and American Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Vainisi</span> American football scout

Jack Vainisi was an American scout and personnel director for the Green Bay Packers from 1950 to 1960. At the age of 23, he was hired by Packers head coach Gene Ronzani to lead the team's player personnel department. In a time when most professional football teams relied on the media for information on college players, Vainisi enlisted college coaches to provide scouting reports on not only their own players, but also opposition players. During his time in charge of player personnel, the Packers drafted or acquired eight future Pro Football Hall of Fame players. Vainisi also was instrumental in attracting Vince Lombardi to the vacant head coaching job in Green Bay in 1959. Vainisi did not live to see the success of the teams he helped assemble though, as he died from a heart attack in 1960 at the age of 33.

References

  1. Brehm, Keith (December 13, 1948). "Tom Hearden Honored". The Journal Times. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  2. Hendricks, Martin (July 15, 2015). "Hearden looked to be top choice before McLean". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  3. "Green Bay Coach, Tom Hearden, Dies". The Milwaukee Journal . Milwaukee, Wisconsin. December 28, 1964. Retrieved June 24, 2011 via Google News.