Carl Leonard "Lundy" Lundgren (February 16, 1880 – August 21, 1934) was an American baseball and football player and coach.
The Atlanta Constitution in 1913 summarized Lundgren's strengths and weaknesses: "He had everything including speed to burn green hickory and an assortment of curves that would keep a criptograph specialist figuring all night but he was wild as a March hare in a cyclone and couldn't locate the plate with a field glass.
He was the head baseball coach and assistant athletic director at the University of Illinois from 1921 until his death in 1934.
His father, Pehr Hjalmar Lundgren, was born in Östergötland, Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1868 and worked as a house painter, contractor and interior decorator.
"[7] In his rookie season, Lundgren pitched 17 complete games (in 18 appearances) and had an earned run average of 1.97.
A profile of Lundgren published in 1913 by The Atlanta Constitution discussed his strengths and weaknesses:"He had everything including speed to burn green hickory and an assortment of curves that would keep a criptograph specialist figuring all night but he was wild as a March hare in a cyclone and couldn't locate the plate with a field glass.
He had a strange hold on the art of steering the ball away from the plate that would make Wild Willie Donovan and Cy Seymour look like a brace of pikers who had been touched for their meal tickets.
[5] In the summer of 1909, Lundgren appealed from a decision by the Cubs management to deny him a share of the team's $10,000 World Series bonus for 1908.
In June 1909, he won what was described as "a moral victory" when a non-binding decision was entered, declaring the exclusion of Lundgren to be unjust.
Bill Armour, manager of the Toledo, Ohio team, reportedly lost interest because of Lundgren's reputation as a cold-weather pitcher: "Armour, however, discovered that Lundgren is a good man in the spring and fall, but during the hot months, when his services would be most in demand, he is unable to stand the strain.
[18] In what appears to have been Lundgren's last professional baseball game, he pitched a shutout against the Bridgeport Orators on September 10, 1912.
[1][20] In March 1912, Lundgren was hired to assist Boileryard Clarke in coaching the pitchers at Princeton University in 1912.
[21][22] After a short stint with Princeton, Lundgren returned to the field as a player with Hartford in June 1912.
[24] In February 1913, he was also interviewed, but not hired, for the position of manager of a baseball team in Keokuk, Iowa.
[2] In June 1920, Lundgren left Michigan to become the baseball coach at his alma mater, the University of Illinois.
His Illini teams won Big Ten championships in 5 of Lundgren's 14 years as coach and tied for another.