Letter from Amos Alonzo Stagg to William Ball (March 22nd, 1940)
Description:
This is a letter sent from Amos Alonzo Stagg to William Henry Ball on March 22nd, 1940. This letter contains Stagg's gratitude for Ball for his previous letter and for having an impact on his coaching career. Stagg brings up how he and Frank Seerley used to "make the ground" when they played on the first Springfield College Football team known as Stagg's Eleven and the Stubby Christians. He says the the first year of his coaching was "...the most satisfactory of the whole fifty years that I coached because we were one united group who entered every game, each of us with a prayer in our heart to do our best"
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William Ball was a classmate of Dr. Naismith at Springfield College, then the YMCA Training School, graduating with Naismith in 1891. William Ball also acted for many years as the Alumni contact for the Class of 1891. Stagg graduated in 1891 and served as an assistant physical education instructor at Springfield College from 1890-1892. He started the football program at Springfield College and played in one of the first public basketball game, being the only faculty member to score a "basket ball goal" in their 5 to 1 loss to the students. His football teams at Springfield College were known as "Stagg's Eleven" or the "Stubby Christians". During the two years he coached and played football at Springfield College, the "Stubby Christians" went 10-11-1 and played in one of the first indoor football games in Madison Square Garden against the Yale Consolidated team on December 12, 1890. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Stagg came to be known as the "Grand Old Man of Football". He coached football at the University of Chicago (Chicago, Ill.) from 1892-1932 and at the College of the Pacific from 1933 until his retirement in 1946. Over his career he won 314 games. Amos Alonzo Stagg died in 1965 at the age of 102.
