Lynn Osbert "Pappy" Waldorf (October 3, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American college football player and coach.
[1] As a collegiate athlete, Waldorf played tackle for Syracuse University from 1922 to 1924 and was named an All American in each of those three years.
[3] In 1925 Waldorf was hired as an athletic director at Oklahoma City University, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
[5] In his three years as the head coach he was able to turn the one-win and seven-loss Oklahoma City Goldbugs into and an eight-win, one-loss and two-tie shared Collegiate Conference champion.
[6] As an athletic director and administrator Waldorf was successful in funding and constructing sports facilities as well generating new income through scheduling games against powerhouse opponents.
He hired Albert Exendine as the backfield assistant coach, who was at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School under Pop Warner.
[8] As a coach, Waldorf became known for putting the players through hard work and discipline as well as encouraging them through mentoring and humor.
In 1931, in order to deal with the significant financial difficulties brought by the Great Depression, Waldorf took on the responsibilities of the university's athletic director.
One year prior to his arrival and under coach Dick Hanley, Northwestern won only two Big Ten games.
Later, Waldorf recalled advice from Amos Alonzo Stagg, who is also considered one of the greats and was the coach at University of Chicago.
[11] The positions of the offensive backfield would be analyzed and the resulting plays would be predicted based on earlier film study of the opponent.
On November 9, 1935, at its home field, Notre Dame suffered its only loss of the season, Northwestern won the game 14 to 7.
[16] The Fighting Irish won 26 to 3, taking their turn at ruining their opponents chance for a national championship.
Waldorf's 1940 team included the Chicago star player Bill DeCorrevont and defeated dominant Notre Dame 20 to 0.
In 1942, Waldorf had to deal with changes brought on by United States entry into World War II.
Although the team won only one game, Graham finished the season with then conference record breaking numbers - on 182 attempts he completed 89 passes for 1,092 yards.
[23] Graham set another Big Ten passing record and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting.
[n 2] Waldorf also served as an unofficial coach on the annually voted for All-Star College Player v. NFL Champions game.
He assisted the All-Star coaches and participated in training because the annual game was played at Chicago's Soldier Field with the college players being hosted at Northwestern.
[27] During the first post WWII, 1946 season, Waldorf's team won only two games in the Big Ten, it was his last year at Northwestern.
He had previously visited and liked northern California and after considering the generous offer, Waldorf decided to accept the position.
[29][31] Back at Northwestern, the athletic administration allowed Waldorf to leave two years before the end of the contract.
The game was at home and following the win Waldorf addressed the crowd from the balcony over the north western gate of the Memorial Stadium.
Waldorf saw the offensive line as the key to that season's success as well as the rushing of Jackie Jensen an All American that year and a future baseball star.
[37] One of the unfortunate highlights of the following 1950 season, was the death of Waldorf's long time friend Sam Barry, who was an assistant coach and scout at USC.
The star of that season was guard and linebacker Les Richter, who years later became the first Golden Bear to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
[39] The undefeated Golden Bears were again invited to the Rose Bowl where they again lost, this time to University of Michigan.
[40] In 1953 the National Collegiate Athletic Association changed the game by canceling a rule that was in place since World War Two.
Because of California's own actions to prevent the violations it received a smaller fine and a single year of probation.
[5] Prior to this period professional scouts were often banned from attending practices and using the press boxes during the matches.