A doctor, three dentists, and five attorneys. A newspaper publisher. Two major league baseball players and three NFL standouts. Such are among the varied occupations of the 29 men who have served as head football coach at Georgetown University. A brief introduction to each follows below.
(For information on prior assistant coaches, visit this link.
1-4. Team Captains
1887-1890
Record At Georgetown: 14-7-1 (.651)
Career Record: Same
For the first four years of varsity play, team captains served as game coaches. Collegians Dick Hennessy (1887), Dan O'Day (1888), Bill Gleason (1889), and Pat O'Donnell (1890) were named as coaches for their respective senior seasons. |
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5. Tommy Dowd (1869-1933)
(Brown, 1890)
Head Coach 1891-92
Record at Georgetown: 6-4-1 (.591)
Career Record: Same
While a center fielder for the Washington Senators, Dowd moonlighted in the off-season as a Georgetown law student and served as a player-coach at the Hilltop through the 1892 season. Dowd's career as a football coach ended when he was traded in 1893 to the St. Louis Browns, where he served as manager for two seasons before completing his major league career in 1901.
Further biographical information on Dowd is available at Wikipedia. |
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6. Dick Harley (1872-1952)
(Georgetown, 1896)
Head Coach 1893
Record at Georgetown: 4-4-0 (.500)
Career Record: Same
Following Dowd's departure, the team inducted junior Dick Harley to serve as player coach for the 1893 season. Harley left Georgetown after the 1894 season and played seven years in major league baseball among five teams, ending his career with the 1903 Chicago Cubs. Harley became a college baseball coach in later years, serving as the manager for teams at Penn State, Pitt, and Villanova.
Further biographical information on Harley is available at Wikipedia. |
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7. Bob Carmody
(Georgetown, 1895)
Head Coach 1894
Record at Georgetown: 4-5-0 (.444)
Career Record: 6-6-1 (.500)
The last of Georgetown's player-coaches was medical student Bob Carmody, who coached the team in the fall of 1894. He later coached at Fordham in the 1897 season. |
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8. Bill Donovan (1876-1923)
(Brown, 1897)
Head Coach 1898
Record at Georgetown: 7-3-0 (.700)
Career Record: Same
Georgetown returned to football after a three year break following the death of Shorty Bahen and looked to the Washington Senators for its next coach, a former pitcher from Brown whose brief tenure at GU pales in comparison to an 18 year baseball career. Donovan, who still ranks among the top 50 in Major League history in complete games, was an able base runner as well, once stealing second, third, and home plate in a single at-bat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Further biographical information on Donovan is available at Wikipedia. |
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9. Bill Church
(Princeton, 1897)
Head Coach 1899, 1901
Record at Georgetown: 8-5-3 (.593)
Career Record: 13-8-4 (.565)
The college's first full-time head coach was Bill Church, a Washington high school grad who played for the Columbia Athletic Club before a career at Princeton, which earned him All-America honors in 1896. Church coached Purdue in 1897 and the 1899 season at Georgetown before accepting a lucrative offer to be a player-coach with a pro team in Pittsburgh, following which he returned to Georgetown for the 1901 season. |
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10. Arthur E. Bull (1867-1930)
(Pennsylvania)
Head Coach 1900
Record at Georgetown: 5-1-3 (.722)
Career Record: 54-22-11 (.683)
A.E. Bull was a noted football star at Pennsylvania of the late 1880's who coached college football across the country, including a season at Iowa, an assistant to Pop Warner at Carlisle, and as head coach at Georgetown, Franklin & Marshall, and Lafayette. (Photo credit: Gutenberg.org) |
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11. Herman (Billy) Suter (1875-1946)
(Princeton, 1899)
Assistant Coach 1901, Head Coach 1902
Record at Georgetown: 7-3-0 (.700)
Career Record: 29-6-0 (.829)
Billy Suter was already a well known figure in college football circles, after coaching the "Iron Men of Sewanee" to an undefeated season in 1899. Utilizing strategies that Suter learned while at Princeton, Georgetown won seven of ten games in 1902. Suter retired from football after the 1902 season to open a publishing company in Washington. He would later serve as publisher for the Nashville Tennessean, hiring a young writer named Grantland Rice to cover sports for the paper. (Photo credit: Univ. of the
South) |
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12. Phil King (1872-1938)
(Princeton, 1894)
Head Coach 1903
Record at Georgetown: 7-3-0 (.700)
Career Record: 73-14-1 (.835)
The third Princeton star to coach Georgetown in five years, Phil King was a native of Washington, D.C. who earned three All-America honors with 50 career touchdowns. King became a highly successful coach at Wisconsin from 1896-1902, going 58-9-1 with three Big Nine titles--his 1901 team went undefeated and outscored its opponents 317-5. King studied law while coaching at Georgetown in 1903 before returning to Madison and coaching another season at Wisconsin, earning an 8-2 record. King was inducted to the College Football Hall
of Fame in 1962.
Further biographical information on King is available at Wikipedia. |
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13. Joe Reilly (c.1880-1946)
(Georgetown, 1905)
Head Coach 1904-08
Record at Georgetown: 20-17-2 (.538)
Career Record: Same
Reilly, who played for Georgetown from 1900-03, was selected as head coach in 1904 and coached five seasons, the longest tenure of any prior Georgetown coach.
Reilly's whereabouts after 1908 are unknown, although a 1943 article lists him as the "retired director of the Kansas City Athletic Club, midwestern sports official, and wrestling judge at several Olympic games". |
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14. Bill Newman
(Cornell, 1907)
Head Coach 1909
Record at Georgetown: 3-2-1 (.583)
Career Record: Same
An all-America lineman at Cornell, Newman coached one season at Georgetown in 1909 before joining Pop Warner's staff at Carlisle. (Illustration courtesy Cornell Univ.) |
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15. Fred Nielsen (1879-1963)
(Nebraska, 1901)
Head Coach 1910-11
Record at Georgetown: 14-2-2 (.833)
Career Record: 36-15-4 (.690)
While he coached at four schools in the area (Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, and Catholic), Fred Nielsen's two year record at Georgetown was the most productive. From 1910 through 1911, Georgetown outscored its opponents 438-57 and suffered only two defeats: a 17-0 loss to Pitt, the undefeated and unscored-upon national champions, and a 28-5 loss to Carlisle, led by All-American Jim Thorpe. Nielsen left coaching to pursue a distinguished career in international law and diplomacy, serving as a Georgetown professor, an international trade representative, and solicitor for the
Department of State. |
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16. Frank Gargan (1888-1960)
(Fordham, 1910, Georgetown, 1914)
Assistant Coach 1911, Head Coach 1912-13
Record at Georgetown: 12-5-0 (.705)
Career Record: 48-38-8 (.553)
The third assistant to be promoted to head coach, Gargan coached two seasons on the Hilltop, earning his DDS degree in 1914 before returning to New York, serving as a head coach at RPI and NYU before a notable ten year career at Fordham from 1916-1926, establishing that program among the nation's best. |
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17. Albert Exendine (1884-1973)
(Carlisle, 1906)
Head Coach, 1914-22
Record at Georgetown: 55-21-3 (.743)
Career Record: 68-46-8 (.590)
One of Oklahoma's greatest athletes, Al Exendine was a star at Carlisle in the years before Jim Thorpe, and was named by John Heisman as one of his all-time greatest All-Americans. After football, Exendine became a prominent attorney in Indian affairs who worked between Washington and Tulsa, OK, and after he assisted Georgetown in preparations for its upset over Virginia in 1913, he became head coach the following season. Exendine coached the Hilltoppers for eight years, including the great 1916 team that outscored opponents 474-33. Exendine was inducted to the Georgetown
Athletic Hall of Fame in 1953 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970.
Further biographical information on Little is available at Wikipedia. |
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18. Jackie Maloney
(Georgetown, 1918)
Assistant Coach, 1921-22, Head Coach, 1923
Record at Georgetown: 3-6-0 (.333)
Career Record: 68-46-8 (.590)
After serving one season as Georgetown's basketball coach during the convalescence of John O'Reilly, assistant football coach Jackie Maloney was tapped to replace Al Exendine in 1923, to mediocre results. Maloney's term was not renewed after the 1923 season, making him the shortest-tenured Georgetown varsity coach in the last 100 years. |
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19. Lou Little (1893-1978)
(Pennsylvania, 1922)
Head Coach and Athletic Director, 1924-29
Record At Georgetown: 41-12-3 (.759)
Career Record: 151-128-13 (.539)
Lou Little (Luigi Piccolo) was hired from the NFL to bring the Georgetown program into the modern era. Little led some of its greatest teams, compiling a 32-5-1 record between 1925-28. Hired away by Columbia in 1929 for the sum of $12,000 a year, he coached the Lions for 26 more seasons, including a Rose Bowl berth in 1935. Little was inducted to the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1953 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1960.
Further biographical information on Exendine is available at Wikipedia. |
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20. Tommy Mills (1884-1944)
(Beloit, 1905)
Head Coach and Athletic Director, 1930-32
Record At Georgetown: 11-13-1 (.460)
Career Record: 63-45-12 (.575)
Recommended by Knute Rockne, Georgetown turned to Notre Dame assistant coach Tommy Mills to succeed Lou Little, but without success. Despite hiring a young Frank Leahy as his assistant coach, Mills' 1931 team finished below .500 and Mills resigned under pressure halfway through a two-win season in 1932. Mills briefly coached at Arkansas State before returning to South Bend and overseeing operations of the Rockne Field House until his death at the age of 60. |
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21. Jack Hagerty (1903-1982)
(Georgetown, 1926)
Head Coach, 1932-48, Athletic Director 1948-69
Record At Georgetown: 61-42-10 (.584)
Career Record: Same
Georgetown officials recruited 29 year old Jack Hagerty from the NFL's New York Giants to take over the Hoyas in the middle of the 1932 season. Hagerty led the Hoyas to its apex as a major college program, with 23 straight wins from 1938-40 and an Orange Bowl appearance in 1941. Reassigned after the 1948 season to become the school's athletic director, where he served for 21 years. Jack Hagerty was inducted to the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1953. |
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22. Bob Margarita (1920-2008)
(Brown, 1944)
Head Coach, 1949-50
Record At Georgetown: 7-12-0 (.368)
Career Record: Same
An former all-American at Brown and halfback with the Chicago Bears, Harvard assistant Bob Margarita became the youngest head coach in major college football when he took over the Georgetown post in the fall of 1949. His first team earned a bid to the Sun Bowl, but a 2-7 season in 1950 precipitated the sport's cancellation in April, 1951. Margarita later served as an assistant at Yale and Boston University before beginning a long career as a high school coach and teacher in Stoneham, MA. |
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23, 24: John Murray, William Nash
(Bowdoin, 1962; Notre Dame, 1963)
Head Coaches, 1964-65
Record At Georgetown: 2-1-0 (.667)
Career Record: Same
In 1963, law student Bob Schmidt (L'64) was selected as coach for the nascent club team; when the 1963 season was cancelled and Schmidt graduated in the spring of 1964, the coaching duties were transferred to John Murray (L'65, left) and Bill Nash (L'66, right) . Murray and Nash handled the responsibilities for the 1964 debut game while Nash was listed as head coach in 1965, with Murray as an assistant.
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25. Mike Agee
(Washington State, 1960)
Head Coach, 1966-67
Record At Georgetown: 5-1-0 (.625)
Career Record: Same
Agee was playing semi-pro football in the Washington area when he took over the club program in 1966. He resigned after the 1967 season to pursue business interests in California.
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26. Maurice Dubofsky (1909-1970)
(Georgetown, 1932)
Assistant Coach 1933-1948, Head Coach 1968-69
Record At Georgetown: 8-4-0 (.667)
Career Record: Same
A former player and assistant coach with the Hoyas during its major college days, "Mush" Dubofsky returned to the Hilltop to lead the club team in the fall of 1968. In his second season, Dubofsky suffered a heart attack in the fall of 1969 and died following a second heart attack in 1970. Maurice Dubofsky was inducted to the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1953. |
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27. Scott Glacken (1944-2006)
(Duke, 1966)
Assistant Coach 1968-69, Head Coach 1970-92
Record At Georgetown: 98-94-2 (.510)
Career Record: Same
A former quarterback with the Denver Broncos, Glacken joined Mush Dubofsky's staff in 1968 and was elevated to head coach following Dubofsky's death. Glacken coached the Hoyas through its entire tenure in Division III, leading a group of dedicated part-time coaches that provided permanence to the revival of football on the Hilltop. Glacken was inducted to the Georgetown Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. |
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28. Bob Benson (1963- )
(Marietta, 1986)
Head Coach 1993-2005
Record At Georgetown: 72-64-0 (.529)
Career Record: Same
Hired as Georgetown's full time head coach since 1949, Benson's enthusiasm and perseverance helped propel Georgetown to the top of Division I-AA's MAAC Football League, paving the way for Georgetown to accept an invitation to the Patriot League in 2001. After six consecutive losing seasons, Benson resigned following the 2005 season. |
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29. Kevin Kelly (1960- )
(Springfield, 1982)
Head Coach, 2006- present
Record At Georgetown: 17-48 (.261)
Career Record: Same
A former assistant coach at Syracuse, Dartmouth, Tulane, Marshall, and Navy, Kelly became head coach in the 2006 season. |
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