Len Casanova Leonard Joseph " Len " Casanova ( June 12 , 1905 – September 30 , 2002 ) was an American football , basketball , and baseball player , coach , and college athletics administrator . He served as the head football coach at Santa Clara University ( 1946 – 1949 ) , the University of Pittsburgh ( 1950 ) , and the University of Oregon ( 1951 – 1966 ) , 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 . Early life and playing career . Casanova was born to Swiss - American immigrants , John and Marie Ursula Casanov on June 12 , 1905 on a ranch in the Grizzly Bluff area near Ferndale , California . He got his start in football in the early 1920s when he played halfback for Ferndale High School , and in 1922 he captained the Ferndale team to a co - championship with Eureka High School . The Ferndale team ended the season with seven wins in eight games . One of Casanova ’ s early athletic feats came in the first game that year against Arcata High School when , as a left - footed kicker , he drop - kick ed a 45 - yard field goal as Ferndale defeated the Tigers , 10 – 0 . Clark Bugbee , a high school teammate , later recalled that " Cas wanted to be a good punter . The coach gave him a football to take home and practice with . He practiced winter and summer and turned out to be quite a punter in college . " While in high school , Casanova delivered newspapers and worked at a meat market in town . In his senior year , he also played basketball and baseball and was president of the student body . In the 1923 Ferndale High School yearbook , under the column " Expected to Be " in the " Senior Horoscope " section , Casanova listed his future career as " football coach . " Casanova entered Santa Clara University in the fall of 1923 and played football and baseball from 1923 through 1927 . As a freshman in a game against Stanford , he picked up a fumble and returned it 86 yards for a touchdown . In 1924 , Casanova was playing halfback and punting for Santa Clara . He first made headlines as a player for Santa Clara in 1924 after his heroics in a game against Saint Mary ' s . A popular rivalry since its origination in 1895 , the " Little Big Game " between Santa Clara and Saint Mary ' s was played annually in front of packed crowds at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco . With the ball resting on the Santa Clara two - yard line , Casanova was called on to punt from his own end zone . He punted a ball that went out of bounds on the Saint Mary ' s one - yard line . The punt traveled a total of 97 yards and would ( as of 2006 ) rank as the second longest of college football history if pre - 1937 statistics were included in the NCAA record book . Casanova was Santa Clara ' s team captain in his senior year under coach Adam Walsh , who had played at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne . Casanova graduated in 1927 with a bachelor ’ s degree in philosophy and a minor in history . He attended summer sessions at Santa Clara and obtained his teaching credential in 1932 . Following college graduation , Casanova played one season with the San Francisco Olympic Club team . Coaching career . High school . Casanova began his teaching and coaching career in 1927 at St . Joseph Military Academy in Belmont , California . In 1928 , he began teaching physical education and coaching football and baseball at Sequoia High School in Redwood City , California . As head football coach at Sequoia High , Casanova ' s team won the Peninsula Athletic League championship in 1935 . Santa Clara . In 1936 , Casanova became an assistant coach at his alma mater , Santa Clara University , under the legendary " Silver Fox " , Buck Shaw . During his first year coaching at Santa Clara , the Broncos defeated LSU in the 1937 Sugar Bowl . The following season , Santa Clara went undefeated , sharing the # 9 ranking in the AP Poll with Notre Dame . The Broncos were invited back to the Sugar Bowl where they again stunned LSU , 6 – 0 . Casanova remained Shaw ' s assistant until Santa Clara suspended football after the 1942 season on account of World War II . Casanova joined the United States Navy commissioned as a full Lieutenant and was discharged at the end of the war as a full naval Commander . Casanova was also head baseball coach at Santa Clara from 1939 to 1942 . Casanova returned to Santa Clara in 1946 as head football coach . His 1948 team defeated Stanford , tied Michigan State , and posted an upset win over Oklahoma at Kezar Stadium , 20 – 17 . In 1949 , the Santa Clara Broncos opened with a disappointing defeat at the hands of the California Golden Bears . Santa Clara then went unbeaten over its next eight games , marred only by a 7 – 7 tie with Stanford . After nearly upsetting Oklahoma in Norman , the Broncos were invited to play in the Orange Bowl in Miami . Their opponent was the # 11 - ranked Kentucky Wildcats , coached by Bear Bryant . Bryant , who later became the all - time winningest football coach in collegiate history after moving on to Texas A & M and Alabama , had earlier served under Casanova in theNavy . Kentucky was an overwhelming favorite going into the game . Santa Clara ’ s 19 - car train to Miami was known as the " Orange Bowl Special " and it stopped at Yuma , Arizona and Del Rio , Texas to allow the team to hold short practice sessions . In Miami , Santa Clara scored a monumental upset of Kentucky , 21 – 13 . Santa Clara led 14 – 13 and scored its final touchdown with thirty seconds remaining in the game . Bryant remarked after the game : " I had better men at my disposal than Casanova had . He got more out of his men than I did . " After the Orange Bowl win , Santa Clara announced that as a cost - cutting measure it was dropping major college football . Pittsburgh . In 1950 , Casanova was offered the head coaching position at the University of Pittsburgh . He expected to have an experienced team to play a tough schedule that included games against Notre Dame , Michigan State , and Ohio State . But in June 1950 , the Korean War began and most of his players were called into military duty . His depleted ranks were able to gain but one victory in the 1950 season . Oregon . 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 , a distinction he retained until 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 with a 10 – 7 loss to top - ranked Ohio State in the 1958 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 . Later life , honors , and death . After retiring from coaching in 1966 , Casanova served as the Oregon ' s athletic director from 1967 to 1970 during which time Autzen Stadium was completed . He remained closely associated with the University of Oregon for many years and was active in numerous fundraising efforts and special projects that improved the school ' s athletic facilities . From 1969 to 1973 , Casanova served on the NCAA football rules committee . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1977 and received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award in 1990 . The award given to the freshman or newcomer of the year on the Oregon football team is named the " Len Casanova Award " in his honor . In 1991 , the University of Oregon in decided that Casanova ' s distinguished record merited an exception to State Board of Higher Education policy regarding the naming of buildings after living persons . In honor of Casanova ' s 40 years of contribution to the Ducks ’ athletic fortunes , Oregon ' s new athletic department facility was named the Len Casanova Athletic Center . While still active at age 96 and attending reunions with his former players and coaches , Casanova sat for an interview in 2002 and named some of the highlights of his coaching career : Casanova died following an extended illness on September 30 , 2002 , at Sheldon Park Assisted Living in Eugene , Oregon . At the time of his death , many Oregonians credited Casanova with building the foundation for Oregon ' s national status . " Everything that Oregon athletics is today , it owes to Len Casanova , " said Bill Moos , Oregon ' s athletic director . " He has been the pillar , the strength and the inspiration for our program for over 50 years . " Said Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti after Casanova ' s death , " We lost a great man . He definitely left his mark not just on the University of Oregon but on football in general . " Personal life . Casanova married Dixie Simmers of Santa Cruz , California on June 12 , 1931 . Dixie attended San Jose State College and taught kindergarten . They had two daughters . Three years after the passing of Dixie at age 51 on October 17 , 1960 , Casanova married Margaret Pence Hathaway .