Eddie Anderson ( American football coach ) Edward Nicholas Anderson ( November 11 , 1900 – April 24 , 1974 ) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball . He served as the head football coach at Columbia College in Dubuque , Iowa , now known as Loras College ( 1922 – 1924 ) , DePaul University ( 1925 – 1931 ) , the College of the Holy Cross ( 1933 – 1938 , 1950 – 1964 ) , and the University of Iowa ( 1939 – 1942 , 1946 – 1949 ) , compiling a career college football record of 201 – 128 – 15 . Anderson was also the head basketball coach at DePaul from 1925 to 1929 , tallying a mark of 25 – 21 . Anderson played professional football in the NFL for the Rochester Jeffersons in 1922 and the Chicago Cardinals from 1922 to 1925 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971 . Playing and early coaching career . Anderson attended Mason City High School in Mason City , Iowa , before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame . He played for Knute Rockne from 1918 to 1921 and was a teammate of George Gipp . As a senior , he was named a consensus first team All - American and was the team captain of the 1921 Notre Dame football team . In his final three years at Notre Dame , the Irish had a record of 28 – 1 . Anderson ' s only loss in his final three seasons was to Anderson ' s home state school , when Notre Dame lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1921 , 10 – 7 . Anderson coached at Columbia College in Dubuque , Iowa , from 1922 to 1924 , compiling a 16 – 6 – 1 record with one undefeated season . During that time , he was considered for an assistant coaching position at Iowa , but Iowa coach Howard Jones rejected the idea . Anderson served as a player / coach for the Chicago Cardinals ( now Arizona Cardinals ) professional football team in the early 1920s as well . He played on the Cardinals ' controversial championship team in 1925 . That same year , Anderson enrolled at Rush Medical College in Chicago . While in Chicago , Anderson coached football at DePaul University , compiling a 21 – 22 – 3 record from 1925 to 1931 . He also coached basketball at DePaul from 1925 to 1929 , guiding them to a 25 – 21 record . After graduating from Rush , Anderson took a job as head football coach at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts . He had a record of 47 – 7 – 4 in six years at Holy Cross from 1933 to 1938 , including undefeated seasons in 1935 and 1937 . During that time , Anderson also served as the head of eye , ear , nose , and throat clinic at Boston ' s Veterans Hospital . Coaching career at Iowa and military service . First stint . Anderson was hired as the 15th head football coach at the University of Iowa before the 1939 season . Iowa had a record of just 2 – 13 – 1 in 1937 and 1938 under Irl Tubbs , and the Hawkeyes had finished among the worst three teams in the Big Ten Conference standings every year in the 1930s except 1933 . Iowa had won just one conference game in the last three years , and the team they beat , Chicago , announced that they would be dropping their football program following the 1939 season . Anderson sought to change Iowa ' s fortunes immediately . He put the 85 football players who showed up for spring practice through an intense workout . Only 37 players would earn football letters in 1939 for Iowa . Anderson felt the 1939 team could be a good one if the starters played significant minutes . Before the first game , " The Des Moines Register " had a small note stating that " a set of iron men may be developed to play football for Iowa . " The 1939 Hawkeyes , nicknamed the " Ironmen " , would become one of the greatest teams in school history and certainly the most romanticized . Led by Nile Kinnick , the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner , the Hawkeyes put together an 6 – 1 – 1 record , the best overall record in the Big Ten , though Ohio State edged out Iowa for the conference title . Many of Anderson ' s players played complete games during that season for the Hawkeyes . Anderson was named national coach of the year by several organizations . Jim Gallager of the " Chicago Herald - American " wrote , " It ' s doubtful if any coach in football history ever accomplished such an amazing renaissance as Eddie Anderson has worked at Iowa . " Anderson was given a Cadillac by Iowa fans and a bonus by the university after his performance during the 1939 season . He was also given a significant share of stock in Amana Refrigeration by the founder and CEO of the company , George Foersner , as a reward for his coaching that season . When Anderson retired from football in the late 1960s , he cashed in his stock for over a million dollars . After two more average seasons , Iowa started the 1942 season with a 6 – 2 record and was in contention for the Big Ten title , but consecutive road conference losses at Minnesota and Michigan to end the season doomed Iowa ' s chances . After that season , Anderson took a leave of absence to serve in the U . S Army Medical Corps during World War II . Iowa left the football program in the hands of interim coaches Slip Madigan and Clem Crowe while Anderson was gone from 1943 to 1945 . Anderson was a gifted doctor who performed at the University of Iowa Hospital in the morning before coaching in the afternoon . He had been studying urology under the Head of Urology , at the Iowa hospital . When Anderson returned in 1946 , he was told that if he retired from coaching , he would be named the successor to Dr . Alcock . Anderson turned down the request and continued practicing medicine on a part - time basis . Second stint . By the time Anderson had returned from the service , Iowa football was again in the cellar of the Big Ten . Before the 1946 season , Anderson was hospitalized for 19 days with a parasite infection . He returned to lead Iowa to four wins in their first five games , which was as many wins as Iowa had during his three year absence . Still , Iowa slumped to a 5 – 4 final record , leading two former players to write a scathing editorial about Anderson . The editorial asked , " How long will Dr . Anderson ride on the laurels that Nile Kinnick won for him ? " In 1947 , a 2 – 2 – 1 start was followed by three straight losses . One day before Iowa ' s final game at Minnesota , Anderson submitted his resignation at Iowa , citing " considerable loose talk " among Iowa fans as one reason . The Hawkeye football team responded with a powerful effort against Minnesota , defeating the Gophers , 13 – 7 . Fans begged Anderson to reconsider , and the Iowa athletic board denied his resignation , promising him a larger coaching staff and other football improvement s . Anderson decided to stay , saying , " I ' m glad we got things straightened out . " Anderson used his larger coaching staff to hire Leonard Raffensperger as the head of the freshman team . After two more average seasons in 1948 and 1949 , Anderson was approached again by Holy Cross , which now had a coaching vacancy . Ohio State made a rare concession and offered their football coach faculty tenure , so Anderson made the same request to Iowa athletic director Paul Brechler . Brechler could not promise Anderson anything , so Anderson resigned and took the head coaching position at Holy Cross . He had a 35 – 33 – 2 record in eight years at Iowa . Later life , death , and honors . Anderson returned to Holy Cross , where he coached 15 more years from 1950 to 1964 . He posted a record of 82 – 60 – 4 in his second stay at Holy Cross . For his career , he coached 39 seasons at four schools and compiled a record of 201 – 128 – 15 . He was the fourth coach in college football history to reach 200 wins . After resigning at Holy Cross in 1964 , Anderson was named the chief of outpatient services at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Rutland , Massachusetts . He also served a school for retarded children . Anderson later moved to Clearwater , Florida before passing away of a heart attack in 1974 . Anderson was inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1962 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971 . Anderson gave the acceptance speech for that year ' s class at the College Football Hall of Fame . He summarized his coaching philosophy when he said , " The victory most savored and cherished is the one that didn ' t come about by beating the rules , but by playing within them , where defeat is only a condition of the moment . " In 1999 , " Sports Illustrated " selected Eddie Anderson as the 45th greatest sports figure in the history of the state of Iowa .