Tom Lieb Thomas John Lieb ( October 28 , 1899 – April 30 , 1962 ) was an American Olympic track and field athlete , an All - American college football player and a multi - sport collegiate coach . Lieb was a Minnesota native and an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame , where he played college football . He was best known as the head coach of the Loyola Marymount University and University of Florida football teams . College sports career . Tom Lieb was born in Faribault , Minnesota in 1899 . In high school , Lieb excelled at baseball , football , hockey , and track and field . He attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend , Indiana , where he lettered in all four sports and twice received All - American football honors . During the 1922 season , Lieb broke his leg in the game against Purdue . While doing his graduate studies at the university , he coached the Notre Dame hockey and track & field teams , and also coached the linemen for the Fighting Irish football team under head coach Knute Rockne . Lieb was a two - time NCAA champion in the discus in 1923 and 1924 , and is widely credited with introducing the modern spin delivery that is still used today . At the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris , France , Lieb competed for the United States in the discus throw and won the bronze medal , but did not equal the distance of his qualifying throw . Several weeks after the Olympics ended , Lieb broke the discus world record with a throw of 47 . 61 meters ( 156 feet 2½ inches ) . Coaching career . Following his graduation , Lieb accepted an offer to coach the linemen for the Wisconsin Badgers . In 1929 , Lieb returned to Notre Dame as the assistant football coach , and was instrumental in directing the Irish to a national championship as Knute Rockne spent most of the season recovering from complications due to thrombophlebitis , a crippling infection of Rockne ' s leg . Lieb ' s coaching success was recognized when he was offered the head coaching position at Loyola University in Los Angeles , California , where he remained from 1930 to 1938 . Lieb relished his role as the Loyola Lions head football coach , posing with lion cubs in publicity photographs , and posted an overall record of 47 – 33 – 4 . Lieb also started Loyola ' s ice hockey program as an off - season conditioning program for his football players , but quickly built the team into a powerhouse with an annual rivalry with the University of Southern California . From 1935 to 1938 , Lieb ' s hockey Lions won four consecutive Pacific Coast Intercollegiate League titles and compiled a 38 – 3 – 2 record . Lieb quit his coaching job at Loyola during his wife ' s illness in 1939 , and then decided to leave California after she died . In 1940 , Lieb succeeded Josh Cody as the head football coach at the University of Florida in Gainesville , Florida , with high expectations based on his prior successes with Notre Dame and Loyola . He also served as Florida ' s athletic director . Lieb , however , was unable to duplicate the same level of success with the Gators that he had at Notre Dame and Loyola . In his five seasons of coaching the Florida Gators football team from 1940 to 1945 , Lieb compiled a 20 – 26 – 1 record , and his contract was not renewed after the 1945 season . Thereafter , Lieb worked as the assistant Crimson Tide football coach and head track & field coach at the University of Alabama , where his old Notre Dame teammate Frank Thomas was the head football coach , from 1946 to 1951 . Life after football . When Lieb retired in 1951 , he returned to Los Angeles , where he became a public speaker . He died of an apparent heart attack in 1962 at age 62 . He was elected to the Loyola Marymount Hall of Fame posthumously in 1987 . External links . < br > < br >