Tom Nugent
Tom Nugent was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, United States on February 24th, 1913 and is the Football Coach. At the age of 92, Tom Nugent biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 92 years old, Tom Nugent physical status not available right now. We will update Tom Nugent's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
Thomas N. Nugent (February 24, 1913 – January 19, 2006) was an American college football coach and innovator, sportscaster, and public relations specialist.
He served as the head football coach at the Virginia Military Institute, Florida State University, and the University of Maryland.
His career track was 89–83–3.
Nugent is credited with the I formation's development.
Early life
Nugent, a native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, attended Ithaca College in upstate New York, where he competed baseball, basketball, football, and track, as well as ten varsity letters. In 1936, he graduated from Ithaca.
Nugent served in the United States Army Air Corps and rose to the rank of captain during World War II. He began as a fitness instructor for deployed officers and later as the head of entertainment of a military installation in Missouri.
Later life
Nugent worked as a sports broadcaster after completing his teaching career. He spent four years with ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami in the late 1960s. He worked in public relations, most notably at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, in the 1970s.
Nugent was inducted into the Ithaca Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1983, Nugent was inducted into the Florida State University Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ithaca College Alumni Association in 1998. In 2000, the National Football Foundation bestowed the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award to him.
Nugent was married to Peg in 1941, and the couple had five sons and four daughters together. He survived his wife, who died in 2002, and he helped his wife. He returned to Indian Harbor Beach, Florida, in the 1980s, and later the Westminster Oaks Health Center in Tallahassee, Florida, where he died of congenital heart disease on January 19, 2006.
Coaching career
Nugent began his football coaching career in Virginia at the high school level. While teaching at Hopewell High School in January 1949, he was recruited by the Virginia Military Institute to replace head coach Slick Morton, who had resigned to take over at Mississippi State.
William & Mary defeated VMI 56-6, 51-6 in his first game as a collegiate coach. Rube McCray, the Indians' head coach, said he would never lose to a former high school coach. Nugent began designing the I formation in 1950 in response to William & Mary's large defensive line and linebacker corps. VMI defeated William & Mary, 2823-23, and Georgia Tech, 14-13, a 28-point favorite. In both games, the Keydets had over 400 offensive yards. Because of the new team's success, Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy was compelled to bring two assistant coaches to VMI's spring training session the following year. Notre Dame scored four touchdowns in the second quarter of the 1951 season opener against Indiana. Nugent began teaching clinics on the I.V., and John McKay replaced his T with the I at Southern California in 1961. The success of McKay in the formation over the previous season prompted more teams to adopt it around the country. The invention of the I formation is occasionally misattributed to McKay or Leahy, to which Nugent replied, "It's something that's long been misunderstood." Well, all you have to do is look it up.
"The most comprehensive collection of material since Bosh Pritchard and Joe Muha was shown before the 1951 season." The Keydets finished 7-3 for a part of the Southern Conference co-championship. According to reports, the Washington State University was interested in recruiting Nugent as its head coach in January 1952.
In 1953, Nugent took over as head coach at Florida State University, taking with him the I formation. "People were very skeptical at first," he said. It would never work, according to the devouts. However, it didn't take long to realize we were onto something big. The Florida State football program was less than a decade old, and the previous season's squad had only won one game.
Florida State finished with an 8-3 record in 1954 and was given an invitation to the 1955 Sun Bowl, the school's first postseason game on New Year's Day. Texas Western defeated them 47–20. Nugent led the Seminoles to a 7-3 record and was granted an invite to play Oklahoma State in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl, where they were defeated, 15-6. 1958 was also the first year that Florida State competed in-state rivalry Florida. "It seems he wants us to promise everything but lose the game," Nugent said of establishing the match.
Nugent was both athletic director and mentor for ESPN analyst Lee Corso and actor Burt Reynolds during his time at Florida State. "He put FSU on the map in the early years," Reynolds said. His overall record at Florida State was 34–28–1.
Nugent said, "I'm Tom Nugent and I hate West Virginia" at the first session before the 1959 season. The Mountaineers were Maryland's first opponent of the season, and Nugent led the Terrapins to a 27–7 win.
Nugent's Maryland team became the nation's first college football program to feature player names on the back of their jerseys in 1961. He coached the Terrapins to their best season of his career during his time as coach, leading to a 7-3 record. The 21-17 triumph over Penn State was the only Maryland victory of the 37-game series, and it was a highlight of the season. The Terrapins also defeated seventh-ranked Syracuse, 22-21.
During Nugent's time at Maryland, he set a 36–34 record. He was the last Maryland coach to win his first game with the team before Ralph Friedgen equaled the feat in 2001.
Maryland absorbed its football team under Nugent's 1962. Darryl Hill, Maryland assistant coach Lee Corso, who had been pushed by Nugent to recruit a black player to play for his team, hired Maryland assistant coach Lee Corso in 1962. Hill was not only the first African-American football player at Maryland but also the first African-American football player in the Atlantic Coast Conference and at any college or university in "the old South."