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Show I V ! ! 7 r... -Av- j I I MIKE I -; r- ' ; 1,1 VI & i I A a y -: 1 IKE ; v - A -I-. ": V I : 4 , CACTUS JACKl ! MIKE, IKE, RAY AND CACTUS JACK. With names like that, they had to be winners. Utah's coaches have a proud tradition. But it wasn't always so. In 1892 they lost to the YMCA. Utah Coaches Are "Winners' By Bruce Miller It's been a long, long time since that dismal day in 1892 when the football team representing the University of Utah slumped to defeat, 4-0, at the hands of the YMCA. In those dim years history failed even to remember a University Uni-versity of Utah football coach. In the early years, coinci-dentally, coinci-dentally, the "U" lost more games than it won. where we did excell our opponents oppon-ents was in the manner in which we went about our business." And through the long span of' time Utah football coaches went about their business very well ... at least sentimental fans feel that way. Utah coaches are winners. No Change Something else hasn't changed. Note a sentence from a University Univer-sity of Utah history book describing de-scribing football in the late 1800's: "For several years there was a lack of interest among the general body of the students stu-dents discouraging to those who were endeavoring to activate athletics on the campus." As soon as the names ot coaches begin to crop up in Utah history books athletic records rec-ords show that Redskin football coaches have been "winners." Mike Giddings follows in a proud tradition. A 129-0 Beating Ike Armstrong is the dominant figure in U football history. To be sure none of his teams equaled the 129-0 beating given an opponent in 1905. (The opponent op-ponent was Fort Douglas but it must have felt like Charlie Brown's baseball team.) Nor was Ike as colorful as Maximilian Maximil-ian Lippenov, who coached the team from 1894 to 1899. The 5'6" Russian not only coached, he organized the "yelling brigade" bri-gade" as it was called in those days. Alas, however, Lippenov's teams lost twice as many games as they won. Armstrong, on the other hand, guided his teams to a remarkable 138 victories and only 59 defeats. He endured only two losing seasons in 25 years at Utah. Redskin teams tutored by Armstrong lost to Wyoming once, to BYU only once, and to Utah State 4 times before he finally left to become Athletic Director at Minnesota. "Cactus Jack" A markedly different breed of coach moved onto campus with the departure of Armstrong. Who would have thought that a University of Utah coach would carry the nickname "Cactus?" Jack Curtice could not have differed dif-fered more from Ike than had the Texan appeared on campus wearing Levis and spurs. The DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE CHRON-ICLE welcomed the new coach with this salty description: He is a "Triple threat" man, exuding exud-ing "fiery enthusiasm, dynamic optimism and an ability to win friends." His teams resembled the master. They won more than they lost and, in the eyes of many fans, were victorious, win or lose, simply because of their razzle dazzle. By the time Jack left for Stanford in 1958 his teams had won 45, lost 32 and tied 4. UCLA training forged the skills of Utah's next football mentor, Ray Nagel. In many ways Nagel personified the new look in college football. His predecessor pre-decessor was a mixture of two thirds cunning and personality and one third recruiting skill. Nagel, possessor of a law degree de-gree and a business degree, perfected per-fected the recruiting realities Curtice had already faced. "Recruiting," said Utah Athletic Ath-letic Director Bud Jack, "has become be-come nearly 50 per cent of the game today." In the late fifties and sixties the competition for players seemed, as it does today, nearly as fierce as the Saturday afternoon contest on the field. Nagel recruited well. The Utes finest hour under Ray was in the Liberty Bowl in 1964 when they trounced West Virginia Vir-ginia 32-6. Nagel's record at Utah was 42 won, 39 lost. He is now head football coach at Iowa. Coach Mike Giddings is still relatively new to the Utah campus cam-pus but his past indicates he, too, is a winner. As a high school coach his teams won 28 of 29 games. As an assistant coach at Southern California Mike watched the Trojans win 32 games, lose 8 and tie one during four years. Winners All B. I., (Before Ike), many other winning coaches appear on the books. Fred Bennion's teams won 16 and lost 7 from 1910 to 1913. Nelson Norgren coached his charges to 14 victories and 11 losses from 1914 to 1917. Thomas Fitzpatrick led Utah to 23 wins and 17 losses in the 20's. The 1908 Utonian reminds us that in some ways, football hasn't really changed. "Our style of playing calls for an open dry field, and yet, on this occasion oc-casion there was a layer of slimy mud over the entire gridiron. Added to this was the fact the opponents were heavier and stronger than our boys. But |