Harold Sebring

Early life

Sebring was born in Olathe, Kansas in 1898, the son of John Thomas Sebring and Anna Lee Hayden Sebring. He graduated from Gardner High School in Gardner, Kansas in 1916, along with his brother, Leonard Sebring.

World War I

Sebring spent 22 months overseas and thirteen months in combat during World War I, and was twice decorated by the U.S. Army with the Silver Star for exceptional bravery under enemy fire, and also received the Croix de Guerre and Corde de Fourragere from the French government. Sebring was honorably discharged from the Army as a sergeant in 1919.

College

After returning to the United States, he studied architecture, engineering and business at Kansas State Agricultural College (now known as Kansas State University) in Manhattan, Kansas, Sebring received a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce from Kansas State in 1923.

Law school student and football coach

While playing football at Kansas State, one of Sebring's coaches was Captain James Van Fleet, a U.S. Army officer who was one of the college's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) instructors. Van Fleet joined the faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in 1921, and also became an assistant coach for the Florida Gators football team. Sebring accepted the coaching position and also enrolled in the University of Florida College of Law as a student. When the Army transferred Van Fleet to a new posting in the Panama Canal Zone after the 1924 season, he recommended Sebring as his replacement, after serving as Van Fleet's chief scout in 1924. Sebring quickly proved himself to be a creative football coach and innovator; his 1925 Gators finished with an 8–2 record, the best record in school history to that time. Florida went 7–3 in 1927, Sebring's third and final season, and was tapped into Florida Blue Key leadership society.

Lawyer and judge

After receiving his law degree, Sebring practiced law in Miami and Jacksonville, Florida. He was appointed judge for the Eight Judicial Circuit from 1933 to 1943 and served on the Florida Supreme Court from 1943 to 1955. After World War II, President Harry S. Truman appointed Sebring to sit on the bench for the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, along with Walter B. Beals, Johnson T. Crawford, and Victor C. Swearingen. Sebring did not want to resign from the Florida Supreme Court and he was granted a leave of absence; the other justices appointed a new lower-court judge each month to serve in Sebring's place during his absence. While in Nuremberg in 1946 and 1947, Sebring was a judge on the Doctors' Trial, one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He returned to service on the Florida court, and was later elected chief justice by his colleagues, serving from 1951 to 1953.

Law school dean

On September 1, 1955, Sebring retired from the Florida Supreme Court and was appointed as the dean of Stetson University College of Law, the first dean after the college moved from DeLand to Gulfport, Florida. Sebring was credited with dramatically expanding the student body and faculty, and deepening the quality and diversity of the college's academic courses. Sebring's retirement from Stetson was planned for September 1, 1968, but he died unexpectedly five weeks earlier. In 1976, Stetson named a law school courtroom in his memory; and, in 2004, the college named him as one of the first seventeen members of its hall of fame.

Family and death

Sebring was married to Elise Bishop and had one child, son Harold, Jr. Sebring's grandson, Harold, III, leads a Tampa law firm, Sebring Law. Sebring died on July 26, 1968, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Head coaching record

Football

References

References

1. "Harold L. Sebring (Cockrell '28)," ''[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Harold+Sebring+born#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbs=bks:1&q=Harold+L.+Sebring+was+appointed+Dean+...+Kansas+on+March+9%2C+1898.&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=cc7216a82c53364 The Brief: Phi Delta Phi Quarterly]'', vol., 51 p. 154 (1955).
2. Bruce R. Jacob, "Remembering a Great Dean: Harold L. 'Tom' Sebring," ''Stetson Law Review'', vol. 30, p. 2 (Summer 2000) (Lexis).
3. link. (2011-07-11 ," GatorZone.com (September 2, 2003). Retrieved May 9, 2010.)
4. Florida Supreme Court, Supreme Court Portrait Gallery, [http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/about/gallery/sebring.shtml Justice Harold Sebring]. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
5. where he also excelled as a member of the [[Kansas State Wildcats football. Kansas State Aggies football]], [[boxing]] and [[Track and field. link. (2011-07-16 . Retrieved February 25, 2010.)
6. Jacob, ''Remembering a Great Dean'', p. 6 (Lexis).
7. When Van Fleet became the head coach of the Gators in [[1923 Florida Gators football team. link. (2012-04-02 '', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 136 (2009). Retrieved April 26, 2011.)
8. Jacob, ''Remembering a Great Dean'', p. 7 (Lexis).
9. "[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SscLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yVQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1831,6638639&dq=coach+james-white&hl=en Sebring Named Florida's 'Varsity Football Coach]," ''The Evening Independent'', p. 14 (January 15, 1925). Retrieved April 23, 2011.
10. link. (2010-10-29 . Retrieved February 25, 2010.)
11. ''[http://web.gatorzone.com/football/media/2012/media_guide.pdf 2012 Florida Football Media Guide] {{webarchive. link. (2013-05-27 '', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 108, 115, 116 (2012). Retrieved September 16, 2012.)
12. and the team he recruited for [[1928 Florida Gators football team. University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame]] as an "Honorary [[letterman (sports). Letter Winner]]"F Club, Hall of Fame, [http://www.gatorfclub.org/hall-of-fame/honorary Honorary Letter Winners]. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
13. Jacob, ''Remembering a Great Dean'', p. 31 (Lexis).
14. Jacob, ''Remembering a Great Dean'', p. 38 (Lexis).
15. "[http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2004/10/18/focus3.html Seventeen members inducted into Stetson charter Hall of Fame]," ''Tampa Bay Business Journal'' (October 15, 2004). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
16. [http://www.sebringlaw.net/ Sebring Law Firm].
17. . (July 26, 1968). ["Harold L. Sebring, Former State Chief Justice, Dies"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120648495/obituary-for-harold-leon-sebring/). *[[The Tampa Tribune]]*.
18. ''2009 Southern Conference Football Media Guide'', [http://www.soconsports.com/fls/4000/socon/files/09fbguide/74-77standings.pdf?SPSID=35576&SPID=1781&DB_OEM_ID=4000 Year-by-Year Standings], pp. 74–77 (2009). Retrieved March 16, 2010.