Dudley DeGroot Dudley Sargent " Dud " DeGroot ( November 10 , 1899 – May 5 , 1970 ) was an American athlete and coach , primarily of American football . He served as the head coach for the NFL ' s Washington Redskins from 1944 and 1945 , tallying a mark of 14 – 5 – 1 ; his winning percentage of . 737 is the best in franchise history for coaches with at least one full season . DeGroot was also the head football coach at Santa Barbara State College — now the University of California , Santa Barbara ( 1926 – 1928 ) , San Jose State University ( 1932 – 1939 ) , the University of Rochester ( 1940 – 1943 ) , West Virginia University ( 1948 – 1949 ) , and the University of New Mexico ( 1950 – 1952 ) , compiling a career college football record of 117 – 67 – 9 . In addition , he served as the head coach of the Los Angeles Dons of the All - America Football Conference from 1946 to 1947 . Playing career . DeGroot ' s collegiate participation in sports records that at Stanford University he competed in basketball , football , swimming , and water polo . Playing under the legendary coach , Glenn " Pop " Warner , he became the Stanford Cardinal football team captain in 1922 and their first All - America n athlete . In both 1923 and 1924 , DeGroot was the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America , 4A , ICAAAA , or IC4A , backstroke champion . DeGroot was a member of the United States rugby team that won an gold medal during the 1924 competition in Paris . Coaching career . DeGroot ' s early coaching career included Santa Barbara State College , which is now one of the University of California campuses , and Menlo Junior College , the college level portion of Menlo School which became Menlo College in 1927 and now is independent , although they continue to share the same campus . From 1932 through 1939 , DeGroot was the head football coach at San Jose State University , where he put together a 59 – 19 – 8 record for the Spartans . His best season there came in 1939 , when his team went undefeated and had outscored opponents 324 to 29 . As of 2006 on a list published on Mercury News of the seven biggest turnarounds for a single season in the history of the Spartans , only DeGroot is listed twice , for 1932 and 1937 . The statistics for these are : the record for the 1932 season is 7 – 0 – 2 with a previous season of 1 – 7 and a margin of six and , the record for the 1937 season is 11 – 2 – 1 with a previous season of 5 – 4 and another margin of six . His next team leadership was at the University of Rochester , where he was football coach from 1940 through 1943 . DeGroot ' s record there was 24 – 6 . Moving to professional sports , he then took over the Washington Redskins , a National Football League ( NFL ) team , in Washington , D . C . Although they lost the NFL championship for that year by one point , 15 – 14 , to the Cleveland Rams , the Redskins won the Eastern Division title in 1945 with DeGroot as their coach . During two seasons with the Los Angeles Dons of the new All - America Football Conference , DeGroot ' s record was 14 – 12 – 2 . DeGroot returned to collegiate coaching as the head football coach at West Virginia University during 1948 through 1949 . His record for the West Virginia Mountaineers was 13 – 9 – 1 . At the University of New Mexico from 1950 through 1952 , DeGroot ' s record was 13 – 17 for the Lobos . Outside of sports . DeGroot received his doctorate degree in education and was recognized as one of the foremost oologists and ornithologists in the United States . His work in oology continues to be discussed in scientific publications . Death . DeGroot died at the age of 70 on May 5 , 1970 at his home in El Cajon , California .