Today's Pop Quiz: Famous Coaches of 1937

Grantland Rice worked with the Cities Service gas station chain to publish advertising premium football guides from 1933 to 1954, though they may have skipped some or all of the war years. Rice passed away in July 1954, so the 1954 guide likely was delivered to the nation's gas station after his death.

The bulk of the guides show the schedules of 200+ colleges, but they also include national and regional previews, bowl game results, illustrations of officials' signals, and assorted other items.

Many retailers or brands developed similar giveaways, but a unique element of many Grantland Rice Cities Service guides is the inclusion of play diagrams and explanations by leading college coaches. Some past Tidbits have used these play illustrations, and you'll see them in the future. You can think of most Tidbits as a lesson in football history, but Today's Tidbit is a pop quiz to see who paid attention in class and who looked out the window too often.

The quiz is straightforward. Below is the cover of the 1937 edition. It includes portraits of nine coaches whose plays are in the issue. Your job is to identify the school that employed each coach in 1937. I completed the quiz myself, correctly identifying five school-coach combinations. For two other coaches, I named the next school they worked at rather than their 1937 employer. I was clueless about one coach and incorrectly guessed another based on the letter on his hat.

So, I had five wins and two losses, and I'll give myself credit for two ties for a 5-2-2 record.

Now, it's time for you to take Today's Pop Quiz. Each coach-school combination is listed below, following a few pages of Rice's 1937 season preview and the 1936 All-American list from the pamphlet.

Lombardi’s Fordham teammate was a first-team All-Americen center, Kelley won the Heisman, Francis was second, Buivid was third, Baugh was fourth, Frank was fifth, and Widseth was seventh.

Coaches and Schools

Here are your answers, sports fans:

Jim Crowley: Fordham

B. H. Moore: LSU (I did not have a clue on this one)

H. H. Norton: Texas A&M (I guessed Tennessee based on the hat)

Carl Snavely: Cornell (I guessed UNC)

W. A. Alexander: Georgia Tech

Raymond W. "Ducky" Pond: Yale

Jock Sutherland: Pitt

Lynn O. Waldorf: Northwestern (I guessed Cal)

Andrew Kerr: Colgate

Feel free to post your record in the comments below. You will be graded on a curve.

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