George Little ( American football coach ) George Edkin Little ( May 27 , 1889 – February 23 , 1957 ) was an American football player , and coach of football , basketball , and baseball , and college athletics administrator . He served as the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati ( 1914 – 1915 ) , Miami University ( 1916 , 1919 – 1921 ) , the University of Michigan ( 1924 ) , and the University of Wisconsin – Madison ( 1925 – 1926 ) , compiling a career college football record of 54 – 16 – 4 . Little was also the head basketball coach at Cincinnati ( 1914 – 1916 ) and Miami ( 1916 – 1917 , 1919 – 1922 ) , tallying a career college basketball mark of 47 – 38 . In addition to coaching , he served as the athletic director at Wisconsin and Rutgers University and as the Executive Secretary of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame . Little was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1955 . Early years . Little was born in May 1889 in Washington , D . C . His father , George Little , was a Pennsylvania native and a school teacher . His mother , Marion Little , was also a Pennsylvania native . He had a younger brother , Howard Little ( born July 1890 ) , and a younger sister , Elizabeth Little ( born February 1897 ) . At the time of the 1900 United States Census , the family was living in Wolf Township , Lycoming County , Pennsylvania . Little was a 1912 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University . There he played for three years as a guard on the football team . Little spent two years as a graduate student at Ohio State University . Coaching career . Cincinnati . Little first head coach position was at the University of Cincinnati . He had an overall record of 10 – 8 including his only losing season a 4 – 5 record in 1915 . Miami . Little was named Miami University ' s head coach for the 1916 season succeeding Chester J . Roberts . His first team went 7 – 0 – 1 and won the Ohio Athletic Conference . This team gave up only six points , all in a game against Wooster , with the only blemish on their record being a 0 – 0 tie with Denison . Little ' s tenure was interrupted by his service in the armed forces during World War I . He served as a captain in the infantry from August 15 , 1917 , to August 7 , 1918 . He returned and led the Redskins a 7 – 1 record in 1919 and a 5 – 2 – 1 record in 1920 . He once again won the Ohio Athletic Conference championship in 1921 with a perfect 8 – 0 record . The 1921 team scored 238 points during the season and gave up only 13 . In his four years as Miami ' s head coach , Little compiled a record of 27 – 3 – 2 including 21 games where the opponent did not score . He left Miami to become Fielding H . Yost ' s top assistant at the University of Michigan . Michigan . Little was the top assistant under Yost for two seasons at Michigan before being named head coach in 1924 . That year , he compiled a record of 6 – 2 . Little and the Wolverines shut out their opponents in five of the six victories . After that season , Little left to accept the head football coach and athletic director positions at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . Wisconsin . In his two years as the Badgers head coach , Little compiled a record of 11 – 3 – 2 . His most successful year at Wisconsin was in 1925 when he led the Badgers to a 6 – 1 – 1 record and a second place finish in the Big Ten Conference . His one loss in the conference was to his former team , Michigan , by a score of 21 – 0 . The Wolverines were led by Yost , who had returned to the head coaching position . Later years . In a draft registration card completed at the time of World War II , Little reported that he was living in New Brunswick , New Jersey , and working for the Rutgers University physical education department .