Amos Alonzo Stagg Amos Alonzo Stagg ( August 16 , 1862 – March 17 , 1965 ) was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports , primarily American football . He served as the head football coach at the International Young Men ' s Christian Association Training School ( now called Springfield College ) ( 1890 – 1891 ) , the University of Chicago ( 1892 – 1932 ) , and the College of the Pacific ( 1933 – 1946 ) , compiling a career college football record of 314 – 199 – 35 . His Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 have been recognized as national champions . He was also the head basketball coach for one season at the University of Chicago ( 1920 – 1921 ) , and the head baseball coach there for 19 seasons ( 1893 – 1905 , 1907 – 1913 ) . At University of Chicago , Stagg also instituted an annual prep basketball tourney and track meet . Both drew the top high school teams and athletes from around the United States . Stagg played football as an end at Yale University and was selected to the first College Football All - America Team in 1889 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach in the charter class of 1951 and was the only individual honored in both roles until the 1990s . Influential in other sports , Stagg developed basketball as a five - player sport and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in its first group of inductees in 1959 . Stagg also forged a bond between sports and religious faith early on in his career that remained important to him for the rest of his life . Playing career . Stagg was born in West Orange , New Jersey and attended Phillips Exeter Academy . Playing at Yale University , where he was a divinity student , and a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and the secret Skull and Bones society , he was an end on the first All - America team , selected in 1889 . A pitcher on his college baseball team , he declined an opportunity to play professional baseball but nonetheless influenced the game through his invention of the batting cage . He went on to earn an MPE from the Young Men ' s Christian Training School , now known as Springfield College . On March 11 , 1892 , Stagg , still an instructor at the YMCA School , played in the first public game of basketball at the Springfield YMCA . A crowd of 200 watched as the student team beat the faculty , 5 – 1 . Stagg scored the only basket for the losing side . Coaching career . Stagg became the first paid football coach at Williston Seminary , a secondary school , in 1890 . This was also Stagg ' s first time receiving pay to coach football . He would coach there one day a week while also coaching full - time at Springfield College . Stagg then coached at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932 . University president Robert Maynard Hutchins forced out the septuagenarian Stagg , who he felt was too old to continue coaching . At age 70 , Stagg moved on to the College of the Pacific in Stockton , California , where he coached from 1933 to 1946 . In 1946 Stagg was asked to resign as football coach at Pacific . During his career , he developed numerous basic tactics for the game ( including the man in motion and the lateral pass ) , as well as some equipment . Stagg played himself in the movie " Knute Rockne , All American " released in 1940 . From 1947 to 1952 he served as co - coach with his son , Amos Jr . , at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania . In 1924 , he served as a coach with the U . S . Olympic Track and Field team in Paris . Stagg ' s final job was as kicking coach at the local junior college in Stockton , California , which was then known as Stockton College . " The Grand Old Man of Football " retired from Stockton College at the age of 96 and later died in Stockton , California , at 102 years old . Family . Stagg was married to the former Stella Robertson on September 10 , 1894 . The couple had three children : two sons , Amos Jr . and Paul , and a daughter , Ruth . Both sons played for the elder Stagg as quarterback s at the University of Chicago and each later coached college football . In 1952 , Barbara Stagg , Amos ' granddaughter , started coaching the high school girls ' basketball team for Slatington High School in Slatington , Pennsylvania . Legacy . Two high schools in the United States , one in Palos Hills , Illinois and the other in Stockton , California , and an elementary school in Chicago , Illinois , are named after Stagg . The NCAA Division III National Football Championship game , played in Salem , Virginia , is named the Stagg Bowl after him . The athletic stadium at Springfield College is named Stagg Field . The football field at Susquehanna University is named Amos Alonzo Stagg Field in honor of both Stagg Sr . and Jr . Stagg was the namesake of the University of Chicago ' s old Stagg Field where , on December 2 , 1942 , a team of Manhattan Project scientists led by Enrico Fermi created the world ' s first controlled , self - sustaining nuclear chain reaction under the west stands of the abandoned stadium . At University of the Pacific in Stockton , California , one of the campus streets is known as Stagg Way and Pacific Memorial Stadium , the school ' s football and soccer stadium , was renamed Amos Alonzo Stagg Memorial Stadium on October 15 , 1988 . Phillips Exeter also has a field named for him and a statue . A field in West Orange , New Jersey on Saint Cloud Avenue is also named for him . At the College of William and Mary , the Amos Alonzo Stagg Society was organized during 1979 – 1980 by students and faculty opposed to a plan by the institution ’ s Board of Visitors to move William and Mary back into big - time college football several decades after a scandal there involving grade changes for football players . The Society was loosely organized , but successful in combating , among other plans , a major expansion of the William and Mary football stadium . Collections of Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s papers are held at the University of Chicago Library , Special Collections Research Center and at the University of the Pacific Library , Holt Atherton Department of Special Collections . The Amos Alonzo Stagg 50 - mile Endurance Hike is held annually along the C & O Canal outside Potomac , Maryland . The winner of the Big Ten Football Championship Game , started in 2011 , receives the Stagg Championship Trophy , named in his honor . The Stagg Tree , a giant sequoia in the Alder Creek Grove and the fifth largest tree in the world , is named in honor of Amos Alonzo Stagg . Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl . The Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl , otherwise known as the NCAA Division III Football National Championship Game since 1973 , is competed annually as the final game of the NCAA Division III Football Tournament . The Stagg Bowl can be traced back to 1969 , prior to the inception of the D - III national championship . At that time - - from 1969 to 1973 - - the Stagg Bowl was one of two bowls competed at the College Division level - - the Knute Rockne Bowl and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl . In 1973 , the NCAA instituted the D - III national championship , and the Stagg Bowl was adopted as the moniker for that game . The first 10 Stagg Bowls were played in Phenix City , Ala . , from 1973 - 1982 . Wittenberg University ( Ohio ) won the inaugural game via a 41 - 0 result over Juniata College ( Pa . ) . The game moved to Kings Island , Ohio , for the 1983 and 1984 editions , with Augustana College ( Ill . ) winning the first two of its four straight NCAA titles . The Stagg Bowl returned to Phenix City for five more years , before spending three seasons in Bradenton , Fla . In 1993 , the Stagg Bowl moved to Salem , Va . , where it has been competed each year since ( 20 games after the 2012 championship ) . The University of Mount Union ( formally Mount Union College ) won the first of its NCAA Division III - record 11 football national championships in 1993 . Innovations in football . The following is a list of innovations Stagg introduced to American football . Where known , the year of its first use is annotated in parentheses . Stagg is noted as a ' contributor ' if he was one of a group of individuals responsible for a given innovation .