page_title: Len Casanova
section_title: Oregon
hierarchical_section_title: Len Casanova / Coaching career / Oregon
caption_attribution_description: Black and white head shot of Leonard J. Casanova, University of Oregon head football coach, 1951-1966.
context_page_description: Leonard Joseph Casanova was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Santa Clara University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Oregon, compiling a career college football record of 104–94–11. Casanova was also the head baseball coach at Santa Clara from 1940 to 1942, tallying a mark of 39–25. After retiring from coaching, he served as the athletic director at Oregon. Casanova was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1977.
context_section_description: In 1951, Casanova moved on to the University of Oregon and took over a program that had finished 1–9 the previous season. He left as the winningest coach in the school's football history with 82 victories,  surpassed by Rich Brooks in 1994.
  The Oregon Ducks played in one of the earliest nationally televised games in 1953 against Nebraska, winning 20–12.  Casanova's 1957 team is remembered for beating Stanford in a game in which they had no fumbles, no interceptions, and only one penalty.  That team finished its season on New Year's Day with a 10–7 loss to top-ranked Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.  Tabbed for a three touchdown licking, Casanova's Oregon Ducks matched the more numerous and more powerful athletes from the Big Ten Conference out-gaining Ohio State in total yards and first downs.  A missed 24-yard field goal and fumble in the fourth quarter cost Oregon the upset victory.  Casanova's 1958 team ranked second in the country in scoring defense, allowing an average of just five points a game, and surrendered more than seven points just once during the season.
  At Oregon, Casanova coached two future Hall of Famers, Mel Renfro and Dave Wilcox, and helped assistants George Seifert, John McKay, and John Robinson start their own illustrious coaching careers.
  "He was a mentor to all us, a man who set an example," Robinson said. "And he loved us. He genuinely cared about us as players.  He would get on our butt if we didn't go to church, and if you didn't go to school he would darn near punch you out."
  In 1964, Casanova served as president of the American Football Coaches Association.
  Casanova's Oregon teams struggled in rivalry games, going 4–10–2 (.313) against Oregon State in the Civil War and 3–12–1 (.219) against Washington in that series. He had a slight advantage against Washington State, at 8–7–2 (.529).
caption: Casanova in 1962
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