Mike Milligan ( coach ) Walter Scott " Mike " Milligan was an American football player and coach of football and basketball . He served as the head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1947 to 1949 and for one season as the head basketball coach at the University of Tulsa ( 1942 – 43 ) . Playing days . Milligan played high school football at Aliquippa High School and Kiski School . While at college at the University of Pittsburgh , Milligan played guard from 1929 to 1931 under the school ' s legendary coach Jock Sutherland . The lightest of Pitt guards in 1930 , and listed at a height of 5 feet , 10 inches and weighing 168 pounds , Milligan broke into the lineup at left guard when Hart Morris was injured in an October 11 game at Western Reserve . The teams on which Milligan played while at Pitt were regional powers and nationally regarded . The 1929 Pitt team went undefeated in the regular season and won the Eastern Championship and appeared in the Rose Bowl losing to USC . The loss did not prevent football historian Parke H . Davis from naming Pitt as that season ' s national champion . The following season , Milligan ' s first as a regular starter , saw the Panthers go 6 – 2 – 1 . This was followed by an 8 – 1 finish in 1931 in which the Panthers recorded six shutouts , including a 40 – 0 dismantling of Nebraska . That season also saw Pitt defeat Penn State in State College , using only one first - string player , by a score of 41 – 6 en route to winning the Eastern Championship . These accomplishments would prompt Parke Davis to again name the Panthers national champions . During his summers in college , Milligan worked as a desk sergeant with the Aliquippa Police Department . Coaching career . As a coach , Milligan held several assistant football coaching positions during his career , in which he typically specialized in coaching the lines . He had his only tenure as a head football coach for three seasons at his alma mater , the University of Pittsburgh . Milligan served one season as the head coach for the basketball team at Tulsa , where he also served as a football assistant . Early years . Milligan became an assistant coach at Pitt under head coach Jock Sutherland in 1934 . He remained a coach at the university , where he served as the coach of the football program ' s freshman squad , until he quit shortly after the resignation of Sutherland in 1938 . From there Milligan took an assistant coaching position at Florida which was followed by an assistant position at Tulsa where he served as the offensive line coach . Tulsa basketball head coach . While at Tulsa , Milligan took over head basketball coaching duties from Tex Ryon who left in 1942 after his second stint coaching the team . Milligan was winless in his basketball coaching tenure at Tulsa , where he went 0 – 10 during the 1942 - 43 season . Milligan was replaced as the Tulsa ' s basketball coach the following year by Woody West . Pitt football head coach . Milligan returned to his alma mater in 1946 as a top assistant for Pitt under head coach Wes Fesler , who left after his only season at Pitt to coach his alma mater Ohio State . Fesler ' s departure opened the door for Milligan ' s promotion to the head coaching position . Milligan ' s head coaching tenure at Pitt was underscored by one of the most satisfying wins in Pitt history when the Panthers defeated the Fesler - coached Ohio State team 12 – 0 for their only win of the 1947 season . Milligan brought Pitt back to winning records in 1948 and 1949 , achieving consecutive 6 – 3 seasons that included appearances in the national rankings and back - to - back shutouts of Penn State , the first of which snapped Penn State ' s 17 - game unbeaten streak . After Pitt , a twenty point underdog , defeated defending Rose Bowl champion Northwestern on the road on October 1 , 1949 , Milligan was named the United Press " Coach of the Week " . At the end of the 1949 season , he was also nominated for the Scripps - Howard " Coach of the Year " award . However , Milligan resigned on January 27 , 1950 , due to a perceived snub by the university offering him only a one - year contract , and he never returned to a head coaching position . Later years . Following his stint as the Pitt head coach , Milligan took a series of assistant football coaching positions and was a highly regarded as a line coach . He spent a year as an assistant at USC in 1950 , was an assistant at Purdue from 1951 to 1952 , and then moved to an assistant position at Nebraska beginning from 1953 to 1955 .