Tom Nugent Thomas N . " Tom " Nugent ( February 24 , 1913 – January 19 , 2006 ) was an American college football coach and innovator , sportscaster , public relations man . He served as the head football coach at the Virginia Military Institute , Florida State University , and the University of Maryland . His career record was 89 – 80 – 3 . Nugent is credited with the development of the I formation . Early life . Nugent , a native of Lawrence , Massachusetts , attended Ithaca College in upstate New York , where he played baseball , basketball , football , and track , and earned ten varsity letter s . He graduated from Ithaca in 1936 . During World War II , Nugent served in the United States Army Air Corps and attained the rank of captain . He worked as a fitness instructor for deploying officers , and later , as the director of entertainment of a military installation in Missouri . Coaching career . Virginia Military Institute . Nugent began his football coaching career at the interscholastic level in Virginia . In January 1949 , while coaching at Hopewell High School , he was hired by the Virginia Military Institute to replace head coach Slick Morton who had resigned to take over at Mississippi State . In his first game as a collegiate coach , William & Mary routed VMI , 54 – 6 . The Indians ' head coach , Rube McCray , said he would never lose to a former high school coach . To counteract William & Mary ' s large defensive line and linebacker corps , Nugent began developing the I formation , which he debuted the following year in 1950 . VMI beat William & Mary , 28 – 23 and upset 28 - point favorite , 14 – 13 . The Keydets posted over 400 offensive yards in both contests . The new formation ' s success prompted Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy to send two assistant coaches to observe VMI ' s spring practice the following year . In the second quarter of the 1951 season opener against , Notre Dame used the I formation to score four touchdown s . Nugent began giving coaching clinics on the I formation , and in 1961 , John McKay replaced his pro T with the I at Southern California . McKay ' s success with the formation the following season prompted more teams to adopt it around the country . The I formation ' s invention is occasionally misattributed to McKay or Leahy , to which Nugent responded , " It ' s something that ' s long been misunderstood . . . But all you have to do is look it up . " Before the 1951 season , VMI was said to have " the finest assortment of material since Bosh Pritchard and Joe Muha . " The Keydets finished 7 – 3 for a share of the Southern Conference co - championship . In January 1952 , the Washington State University was reportedly interested in hiring Nugent as its head coach . Florida State . Nugent took over as head coach at Florida State University in 1953 , and brought with him the I formation . He said , " People were very skeptical at first . They said it would never work . But it didn ' t take long to realize we were onto something big . " The Florida State football program was less than a decade old , and the previous season ' s team had only managed one win . Nugent coached Florida State in its first football game against intrastate rival Florida . The match - up required haggling with his University of Florida counterpart , coach Bob Woodruff , about whom Nugent said , " It seems he wants us to promise everything but lose the game . " In 1954 , Florida State finished with an 8 – 3 record and earned an invitation to the 1955 Sun Bowl , the school ' s first postseason game on New Year ' s Day . They were defeated by Texas Western , 47 – 20 . In 1958 , Nugent led the Seminoles to a 7 – 3 record . They played in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl , where they were defeated , 15 – 6 . During his tenure at Florida State , he also served as athletic director and coached ESPN analyst Lee Corso and actor Burt Reynolds . Reynolds said , " He put FSU on the map in the early years . " His final record at Florida State was 34 – 28 – 1 . Maryland . At the first practice before the 1959 season , Nugent addressed his team , " Hi , I ' m Tom Nugent and I hate West Virginia . " The Mountaineers were Maryland ' s first opponent of the season , and Nugent guided the Terrapins to a 27 – 7 victory in that game . In 1961 , Nugent ' s Maryland team became the first college football program in the nation to put players ' names on the back of their jersey s . That season , he led the Terrapins to the best season of his tenure and finished with a 7 – 3 record . A highlight of the season was the 21 – 17 defeat of Penn State , the only Maryland victory of the 37 - game series . The Terrapins also defeated seventh - ranked Syracuse , 22 – 21 . Nugent amassed a 36 – 34 record during his tenure at Maryland . He remained the last Maryland coach to win his inaugural game with the team until Ralph Friedgen matched that feat in 2001 . Later life . Upon the conclusion of his coaching career , Nugent worked as a sports broadcaster . In the late 1960s , he spent four years with ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami . In the 1970s , he worked in public relations , including at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne , Florida . In 1970 , Ithaca College inducted Nugent into its Ithaca Sports Hall of Fame . The Florida State University Hall of Fame inducted Nugent in 1983 . He has also been inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame . In 1998 , he received the Ithaca College Alumni Association ' s Lifetime Achievement Award . The National Football Foundation bestowed upon him the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award in 2000 . Nugent was married to wife Peg in 1941 , and the couple had five sons and four daughters . He survived his wife , who died in 2002 . He retired , first to Indian Harbor Beach , Florida in the 1980s , and then the Westminster Oaks Health Center in Tallahassee , Florida , where he died of congestive heart failure on January 19 , 2006 .