Tom Nugent

Early life

Nugent, a native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, attended Ithaca College in upstate New York, where he played baseball, basketball, football, and track, and earned ten varsity letters. He graduated from Ithaca in 1936.

During World War II, Nugent served in the United States Army Air Corps and attained the rank of captain. He worked as a fitness instructor for deploying officers, and later, as the director of entertainment of a military installation in Missouri.

Coaching career

VMI and the "I" formation

Nugent began his football coaching career at the interscholastic level in Virginia.

In his first game as a collegiate coach, William & Mary routed VMI, 54–6. The Indians' head coach, Rube McCray, said he would never lose to a former high school coach.

Before the 1951 season, VMI was said to have "the finest assortment of material since Bosh Pritchard and Joe Muha." The Keydets finished 7–3 for a share of the Southern Conference co-championship. In January 1952, the Washington State University was reportedly interested in hiring Nugent as its head coach.

Florida State

Nugent took over as head coach at Florida State University in 1953, and brought with him the I formation.

In 1954, Florida State finished with an 8–3 record and earned an invitation to the 1955 Sun Bowl, the school's first postseason game on New Year's Day. They were defeated by Texas Western, 47–20. During his last season at FSU in 1958, Nugent led the Seminoles to a 7–3 record and earned an invitation to play Oklahoma State in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl, where they were defeated, 15–6. 1958 was also the first year that Florida State played in-state rival Florida. Setting up the match-up required years of haggling and negotiations between the schools and with his counterpart, Florida athletic director and head coach Bob Woodruff, about whom Nugent said, "It seems he wants us to promise everything but lose the game."

During his tenure at Florida State, Nugent served as athletic director and coached ESPN analyst Lee Corso and actor Burt Reynolds. Reynolds said, "He put FSU on the map in the early years." His overall record at Florida State was 34–28–1.

Maryland

At the first practice before the 1959 season, Nugent addressed his team, "Hi, I'm Tom Nugent and I hate West Virginia." The Mountaineers were Maryland's first opponent of the season, and Nugent guided the Terrapins to a 27–7 victory in that game.

In 1961, Nugent's Maryland team became the first college football program in the nation to put players' names on the back of their jerseys. That season, he led the Terrapins to the best season of his tenure and finished with a 7–3 record. The Terrapins also defeated seventh-ranked Syracuse, 22–21.

Nugent amassed a 36–34 record during his tenure at Maryland.

Under Nugent, in 1962, Maryland integrated its football team after Darryl Hill caught the eye of Maryland assistant coach Lee Corso, who had been encouraged by Nugent to find a black athlete to play for his team. Hill became not only the first African-American football player at Maryland but the first in the Atlantic Coast Conference and at any college or university in "the old South."

Later life

Upon the conclusion of his coaching career, Nugent worked as a sports broadcaster. In the late 1960s, he spent four years with ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami. In the 1970s, he worked in public relations, including at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida.

In 1970, Ithaca College inducted Nugent into its Ithaca Sports Hall of Fame. The Florida State University Hall of Fame inducted Nugent in 1983. He has also been inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998, he received the Ithaca College Alumni Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. The National Football Foundation bestowed upon him the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award in 2000.

Nugent was married to wife Peg in 1941, and the couple had five sons and four daughters. He survived his wife, who died in 2002. He retired, first to Indian Harbor Beach, Florida in the 1980s, and then the Westminster Oaks Health Center in Tallahassee, Florida, where he died of congestive heart failure on January 19, 2006.

Head coaching record

College

References

References

1. In January 1949, while coaching at [[Hopewell High School (Virginia). Hopewell High School]], he was hired by the [[Virginia Military Institute]] to replace head coach [[Arthur Morton (American football). Slick Morton]] who had resigned to take over at [[Mississippi State Bulldogs football
2. To counteract William & Mary's large [[defensive line]] and [[linebacker. John McKay]] replaced his [[pro T]] with the I at [[USC Trojans football
3. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=T88bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p1AEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6572,4908382&dq=tom-nugent&hl=en Maryland Appears Team To Beat In Southern Conference Grid], ''The Dispatch'', August 30, 1951.
4. link. (October 20, 2012 , College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved August 29, 2010.)
5. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=v9cjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9SMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7043,3280391&dq=tom-nugent&hl=en Coaching Rumors Fly at NCAA Convention], ''The Milwaukee Journal'', January 10, 1952.
6. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/sports/ncaafootball/21nugent.html Tom Nugent, I-Formation Creator, Dies at 92], ''The New York Times'', January 21, 2006.
7. [http://www.seminoles.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/011906aab.html Former Head Football Coach Tom Nugent Dies In Tallahassee; Tom Nugent coached the Seminoles from 1953-58 and invented the I-formation offense] {{webarchive. link. (February 2, 2013 , Florida State University, January 19, 2006.)
8. link. (August 19, 2014 , College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved August 23, 2010.)
9. Dan Steinberg, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/when-maryland-football-first-put-players-names-on-jerseys/2011/08/02/gIQAvp6vpI_blog.html When Maryland football first put players names on jerseys], ''The Washington Post'', August 2, 2011.
10. A highlight of the season was the 21–17 defeat of [[1961 Penn State Nittany Lions football team. Penn State]], the only Maryland victory of the [[Maryland – Penn State rivalry
11. [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/md/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/07guide-11.pdf Year-By-Year Results] (PDF), ''2007 Terrapin Football Record Book'', p. 9, University of Maryland, 2007.
12. He remained the last Maryland coach to win his inaugural game with the team until [[Ralph Friedgen]] matched that feat in 2001.[https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2001/09/02/maryland-shocks-unc/ Maryland Shocks UNC], ''The Orlando Sentinel'', September 2, 2001.
13. [http://www.ithaca.edu/icq/1998v3/congrats.htm Congratulations!; And thank you. The alumni association presents its annual awards for career achievements and service to IC], ''Ithaca College Quarterly'', Volume 3, Summer 1998.
14. [http://www.seminoles.com/genrel/nugent_tom00.html Tom Nugent Hall of Fame Biography] {{webarchive. link. (February 9, 2014 , Florida State University, retrieved August 23, 2010.)
15. [http://www.seminoles.com/genrel/nugent_tom00.html Florida Sports Hall of Fame Inductees] {{webarchive. link. (February 9, 2014 (PDF), Florida Sports Hall of Fame, retrieved August 23, 2010.)
16. [http://www.ithaca.edu/news/release.php?id=589 Four Receive Alumni Association Awards], Ithaca College, May 22, 1998.
17. (January 2018)