Hercules Renda Hercules Gennaro Renda ( September 5 , 1917 – October 12 , 2005 ) was an American football player and coach . He played for the University of Michigan football team from 1937 to 1939 . He was an assistant football coach at Michigan under Fritz Crisler from 1940 to 1941 . He later served as a high school football and track coach in Pontiac , Michigan for many years and was inducted into the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame . Early years . A native of West Virginia born to Italian immigrant parents , Renda grew up in Cabin Creek in the state ' s coal country . He was named after a brand of mining dynamite ( " Hercules Dynamite " and " Hercules Powder " ) that was popular among West Virginia coal miners at the time . Renda became was a star athlete at East Bank High School in East Bank , West Virginia . During the summers , he worked as a " tippler " at the coal mine . During the school year , he played basketball and football and ran the dash and low hurdles for the track team . He was badly injured in a high school basketball game when he was " bumped while in the air with both feet off the floor and landed on his head . " Renda later said that five weeks in the hospital taught him that football was the best and safest sport after all . As a high school senior in 1935 , Renda drew attention from the West Virginia press for his skill as a running back . The state ' s leading newspaper , the " Charleston Gazette " wrote in October 1935 : " In Hercules Renda , East Bank will show its greatest running back of all time . Renda has scored 11 times for East Bank this year and his runs have varied from 10 to 95 yards . " In November 1935 , the " Gazette " called him " stocky Hercules Renda , a fast stepping but nevertheless rugged halfback , who has been running wild all season . " ( Twenty years later , NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West attended East Bank High ; West was nicknamed " Zeke from Cabin Creek " . ) University of Michigan . Two University of Michigan alumni , Lon Barringer and Rocco Gorman , recruited Renda and his high school teammate , Joe Savilla , to play football for the Michigan Wolverines . Renda and Savilla both enrolled at the University of Michigan . " The Michigan Daily " depicted the two West Virginia recruits as something of an odd pair — Renda was a 5 foot , 4 inch halfback , and Savilla was a 6 foot , 4 inch tackle . Despite his small size ( 5 feet 4 inches and 152 pounds ) , Renda played for Michigan ' s freshman team in 1936 and for the varsity team from 1937 to 1939 . His performance on the freshman team in 1936 was summed up as follows : " On the offense he runs like a frightened deer and is deathly with his tackles while on defense . " After one of his first games in 1937 , the " Michigan Alumnus " wrote : " And once more Michigan has a colorful football hero . Little Hercules Renda , five feet four inches ' tall ' and 152 pounds of relentless energy , ran , squirmed and tackled his way into the hearts of thousands on thousands of Wolverine rooters whose frenzied cheers welcomed his first great touchdown catch and plunge , and warmed excitedly to his never - ceasing battling . Renda never stopped . . . . Michigan took little Hercules Renda to its heart last Saturday and , unless all signs are wrong , this midget from the hills of West Virginia will write his name high in the Wolverine athletic annals . " Press coverage of Renda often focused on his short stature , and often referred to him as the " midget " from West Virginia . An Associated Press story in 1937 reported that Renda was " just about the shortest first - string football player in the U . S . " but noted that he " travels with the power of a tank . " Michigan coach Fritz Crisler called Renda the " greatest football player in America for his height . " During the 1938 and 1939 seasons , Renda saw limited action , as Michigan had Forest Evashevski and Tom Harmon in the backfield . He became principally a blocking back in the 1938 and 1939 seasons . At the time of his death in 2005 , the University of Michigan issued a press release stating , " Renda may have been one of the shortest football players in U - M history , standing only 5 - 3 , but his speed and quickness plus his 17 - inch calves made him an extremely tough running back to tackle . " Assistant coach under Crisler . After graduating from Michigan , Renda was hired as an assistant football coach at Michigan . He served as an assistant coach under Fritz Crisler during the 1940 and 1941 seasons . Michigan finished with a record of 13 wins , 2 losses and 1 tie during Renda ' s two seasons as an assistant coach . World War II . With the entry of the United States into World War II , Renda joined the U . S . Army and reported to Fort Custer Training Center in December 1942 . In June 1942 , he was transferred to the U . S . Army Air Corps and sent to Miami , Florida , for training as an officer and physical instructor . High school coaching career . After the war , Renda had a long career as a high school football coach . He coached at Flint Central High School . From 1948 to 1951 , he was the head football coach and athletic director at Pontiac High School in Pontiac , Michigan . Renda ' s teams won 18 games , lost 25 and tied 2 during his five years at Pontiac High School . Renda told reporters in March 1953 that he had been fired by the school board for objecting to its " win - or - else " policy . Renda later returned to the Pontiac schools as head track coach , assistant football coach , and athletic director beginning in 1967 at Pontiac Northern High School until his retirement in 1982 . He was inducted into the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame . Upon his arrival at Pontiac High School in 1948 , Renda was asked about the unwritten policy that minorities were not allowed to play sports . His response was that " any student who wished to participate in sports would be able to do so . " He later told his son that this opened the floodgates . One of the football players who played for Renda and benefitted from this change was Walter Beach III , who later played for the NFL Champion Cleveland Browns in 1964 and is still associated with the great Jim Brown . Renda died in October 2005 at age 88 while taking his daily walk on the track at Pontiac Northern High School . A few years after his death in 2005 , a local paper wrote : " Herk spent more than five decades in Pontiac helping students as a coach , administrator and just being the ultimate good neighbor . Since his passing a couple years ago , the world hasn ' t quite been as good a place . Everybody who knew Herk will tell you that . "