Ducky Pond Raymond W . " Ducky " Pond ( February 17 , 1902 – August 25 , 1982 ) was an American football and baseball player and football coach . He served as the head football coach at Yale University from 1934 to 1940 and at Bates College in 1941 and from 1946 to 1951 , compiling career college football record of 52 – 55 – 3 . At Yale , Pond tallied a record of 30 – 25 – 2 record , including a 4 – 3 mark versus Harvard , and mentored two of the first three winners of the Heisman Trophy , Larry Kelley and Clint Frank . At Bates , he led the undefeated and untied 1946 squad to the inaugural Glass Bowl . Pond was a public relations executive after his career in athletics . Early life and playing career . Pond , after attending high school in Torrington , Connecticut , his birthplace , and the Hotchkiss School , was a member of the Yale Class of 1925 , and a 1924 first - team All - American at halfback . Pond starred in the 1923 edition of The Game . He was nicknamed " Ducky " by Grantland Rice for returning a fumble 63 yards that afternoon against Harvard on a field that resembled " seventeen lakes , five quagmires and a water hazard " . Yale hadn ' t scored a touchdown versus Harvard since the end of World War I . As an undergraduate at Yale , Pond also played on the baseball team , where he was coached by Smoky Joe Wood . Coaching career . An uproar engulfed Pond ' s hiring at head football coach at Yale in 1934 . Though he had been head scout and an assistant for his predecessor , Mal Stevens , who coached from 1928 to 1932 , and an alumnus like every head coach before him , " Time " magazine reported that the " New York City alumni , who had waged a furious fight to end Yale ' s policy of graduate coaches and demanded a proven winner from outside " were enraged that Michigan ' s Harry Kipke had not been invited to coach the team . Kipke had coached Michigan to consecutive national championships in 1932 and 1933 . The alumni probably desired a reversal of the program ' s decline versus Harvard . Yale led The Game series 22 – 6 – 5 from 1875 to 1912 ; however , from 1913 to 1933 , Harvard led the series 11 – 7 – 1 . Pond , whose head coaching experience had been two seasons at Hotchkiss , was the last alumnus to be head coach of football at Yale . Reginald Root , head coach for the 1933 season and an alumnus , had a . 500 record and lost to Harvard . Pond coached an historically significant game in 1934 versus Princeton . The 1934 contest was the last time a group of 11 starters played the entire 60 minutes of a game . At Palmer Stadium , Yale ended Princeton ' s 15 - game winning streak with a 7 – 0 upset on November 17 . " The New York Times " reported that an expected capacity crowd of 52 , 000 would attend the contest , the 58th in the series . Princeton then won another 12 consecutive games after the loss . The Yale starters , Larry Kelley among them , were nicknamed Iron Men by the press . Kelley scored the contest ' s sole touchdown . Fritz Crisler , considered the father of two - platoon football , was Pond ' s counterpart at Princeton . The contest has been subject of two books , " Yale ' s Ironmen : A Story of Football & Lives in The Decade of the Depression & Beyond " and " Football ' s Last Iron Men : 1934 , Yale vs . Princeton , And One Stunning Upset " . Pond coached two Heisman Trophy winners while at Yale . End Larry Kelley in 1936 and halfback Clint Frank in 1937 were the second and third winners of the most prestigious individual award in football . Among the total of 21 assistants employed by Pond at Yale , future President Gerald Ford served for four seasons , 1937 – 1940 , while attending Yale Law School , and Greasy Neale was hired as the backfield coach right after Pond ' s announced elevation February 1 , 1934 . Neale had coached West Virginia to a 3 – 5 – 3 record in 1933 , his third year there . Neale was clearly the chief strategist among the coaches . Honors . Yale ' s athletic department annually awards the Raymond W . Pond Pitching Award .