Today's Tidbit... Great Coaching Staffs: 1954 Michigan State

Some teams are excellent due to the talent on the roster, and others due to their coaching staff. Of course, there is an interplay between the quality of coaching staff and the rosters since success and recruiting beget high-quality recruits. Still, you occasionally come across a coaching staff and are startled by its depth of coaching talent. One staff that fit the excessive talent bill was the boys coaching the 1954 Michigan State Spartans.

How many great coaches do you recognize from the picture?

Michigan State joined the Big Ten the previous year - Biggie Munn's final year as head coach - and tied Illinois for the league title. Under the Big Ten rules of the day, the Rose Bowl invitation went to the team winning the conference title, or, in the case of ties, it went to the team that had gone the longest since their last appearance in Pasadena. As a new conference member, MSU qualified as the latter and went to the Rose Bowl, where they beat UCLA.