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Title: Amos Alonzo Stagg collection
Dates: 1869-1989
Collection number: MSS 072
Creator:
Stagg, Amos Alonzo,
1862-1965
Collection Size: 17 feet
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of
Special Collections
Stockton, California 95211
Abstract: The Stagg Collection contains biographical
materials, correspondence, clippings, writings by and about Stagg, photographs
and memorabilia.
Physical location: For current information on the location
of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research. A detailed 82 page finding aid/inventory
of materials is available upon request.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as
the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
researcher.
Amos Alonzo Stagg collection. MSS 072. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library.
Biography / Administrative History
Amos Alonzo Stagg, the "Grand Old Man of Football" was born on Aug 16,
1862, in West Orange County, N. J. during the American Civil War, and seven
years before the first intercollegiate football game was played. When it was
time for Amos to decide whether or not he should go to college, he asked for
the advice of one of his teachers and after being greatly inspired by his talk,
he decided to go. After attending Philips Exeter Academy, Stagg went on to Yale
to become a minister, but while there Stagg found another calling in life, to
promote Athletics. While at Yale, Stagg became one of Yale's greatest baseball
pitchers of all time, and later he was chosen to be a member of Walter Camp's
first All America Team in 1889. After graduating from Yale Stagg decided that
he was not ministerial material and thus began the career of one of football's
greatest legends. In 1890, Stagg began coaching football at Springfield
College, and by 1892 he was a coach at the University of Chicago. Stagg stayed
at Chicago for 41 years until his retirement in 1933. After which, Stagg
traveled by train to the Pacific Coast to what was then a tiny college that
would someday become the University of the Pacific. While coaching at Pacific,
Coach Stagg had such an impressive impact on the school's team that he was
voted coach of the year for 1943. In 1946, he left Pacific to join his son at
Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and there Stagg continued to coach
until 1953, when his beloved wife Stella began to suffer from declining health
and he decided to return to Stockton for her sake. Even then, Coach Stagg
continued to coach, and until 1959 he coached the Stockton Junior College
Football Team, now Delta College. Stagg's influence on football included more
than his activity on the field. Since its founding, Stagg was an active member
of the NCAA and played an important role in the development of football as well
as many other sports.
Throughout his life, Coach Stagg believed that football provided young
men with high ideals, and a good strong character. While Coach Stagg coached
his teams, he forbid his players to smoke, drink, or commit other vices under
penalty of being thrown off the team. A strong advocate of prohibition, and a
witness to the saddening effects of alcohol abuse, Stagg strongly spoke against
alcohol on many occasions. His belief was that he could shape the young men he
coached by giving them a strong character, enhanced by good morals and
leadership qualities, and by doing so he could improve society. Coach Stagg
died peacefully at the age of 102.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Stagg Collection contains biographical materials, correspondence,
clippings, writings by and about Stagg, photographs and memorabilia. A detailed
82 page finding aid/inventory of materials is available upon request.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
College of the Pacific -
Football
University of Chicago -
Football
Coaching (Athletics) - Study and
teaching
Coaches (Athletics) -
Correspondence
Coaches (Athletics) -
History
Football - History
Stagg, Paul