caption player_team death_date death_place coach_years birth_place overall_record player_years coach_team cfbdwid bowl_record sport birth_date image article_title name
sasse state yearbook pictured in '' reveille 1936 '' , mississippi army 16 october 1954 rehoboth beach , delaware 1926 1932 1935 & ndash ; 1937 & ndash ; 1929 1930 & ndash ; wilmington , delaware 45 & ndash ; 15 & ndash ; 4 c. 1910 army -lrb- line -rrb- army mississippi state 2065 0 & ndash ; 1 football 19 july 1889 ralph i sasse ms.png ralph sasse
 ralph sasse
ralph sasse

ralph irvin sasse -lrb- july 19 , 1889 -- october 16 , 1954 -rrb- was an american football player , coach , college athletics administrator , and united states army officer .
he served as the head football coach at the united states military academy from 1930 to 1932 and at mississippi state college , now mississippi state university , from 1935 to 1937 , compiling a career college football record of 45 -- 15 -- 4 .
born near wilmington , delaware in 1889 , sasse attended the united states military academy , graduating in 1916 .
after graduating from west point , sasse was assigned to the cavalry , and while serving the united states in world war i , he rose to the rank of major and commanded the 301st tank battalion .
after world war i , he returned to his alma mater in 1924 as a mathematics instructor and was appointed head coach in 1929 .
later , in 1935 , sasse joined the mississippi state college staff as a science instructor and head football coach of the state college maroons .
after leading mississippi state college to a 20 -- 10 -- 2 record in three years and an appearance in the 1937 orange bowl , sasse stunned the students and players by resigning from his head coach 's duties , following a doctor 's orders after a sudden nervous breakdown .
upon leaving the coaching ranks , sasse become the athletic director at pennsylvania military college , chester in 1941 .
sasse died october 16 , 1954 in rehoboth beach , delaware .
