ANDERSON, Dr. Edward Nicholas "Eddie"
ANDERSON, ANDEREN, DINON, SLATER, DEVINE, LOCKE, BRODRICK
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 5/7/2014 at 05:32:41
The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, April 20, 1940, Page 16THEY STARTED HERE
No. 5 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories
DR. EDWARD NICHOLAS "EDDIE" ANDERSON, Football Coach
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Familiar to millions of sports lovers in the world's greatest sports loving nation is the name of Dr. Edward N. Anderson, football coach at the University of Iowa, who was acclaimed nationally last fall [1939] as the "coach of the year" following the sensational performance of his first Hawkeye team, Iowa's "Iron Men."
Seldom does anyone gain the heights of fame and universal recognition in his eminence through able accomplishments and complete command of his work. Eddie Anderson is no exception to that rule.
For his has been a career of undoubted ability - of difficult well done. The ability to recognize what his goal, what is takes to get there and the determination to attain it have been the deciding factors in his life. Eddie Anderson's story on the face of it is a sports story, but basically it is applicable to almost any line of endeavor.
Eddie Anderson was born in Oskaloosa Nov. 13, 1900, where his father, Edward M. Anderson, was a railroad man. [The elder Anderson was of Norwegian extraction, changing the spelling of his surname from Andersen to Anderson. His mother, Nellie Dinon Anderson was of Irish American extraction.] He attended grade school there and early showed an interest in sports, more particularly, baseball. He spent many hours standing in the backyard of the Anderson home, tossing a baseball against the side of the barn and catching it on the rebound.
The Andersons, father, mother, Eddie and younger brother Bill, moved to Mason City in the early summer of 1912, shortly after both youngsters had recovered from nearly fatal illnessess (sic) with typhoid fever.
In Mason City high school, which then was housed in what is now the Lincoln grade school, Eddie's liking for sports was turned to football. Football then was even more the major high school sport than it is today because basketball had not yet attained its present prominence.
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Mrs. Anderson shared a dislike common with many mothers - she didn't care for the idea of her son playing football. But Eddie asked his father for permission to play and was told that he should make his own decision.
So he played.
Four years of high school football, culminating in one of the greatest football seasons Mason City high school ever had, prepared him for things to come. He was a member of the 1917 team coached by C. A. West which went through the schedule of 10 games undefeated.
When he enrolled at Notre Dame university in 1918, America was at war and Eddie enlisted in the Student Army Training corps and served until he receive his honorable discharge at the war's close.
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Because of war conditions, he was eligible for four years of intercollegiate football and he played brilliantly in all four seasons. Knute Rockne was coaching his first year when Eddie Anderson first reported for practice and the slim-hipped, broad shouldered Iowa youth won a varsity end position almost from the start.
Eddie captained the Notre Dame team his senior year - an eleven that saw a 20 game winning streak snapped at Iowa City by a powerful Hawkeye team led by Aubrey Devine, Gorden Locke, and Fred "Duke" Slater. [Eddie played end from 1918 to 1921, and as a first team All-American his senior year. His only loss in his final three years at Notre Dame was when Notre Dame lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1921, 10-7.]
Following his graduation in 1922 with a degree of bachelor of science, Eddie went immediately to coach at Columbia college in Dubuque, where he had three highly successful years, including one in which his team was unscored upon. Saturday nights saw him commuting to Chicago, where he played professional football on Sundays.
In the back of his mind since he had been a small boy was the idea that he would ultimately like to become a doctor. "Boy, I'll cut' em up. Dad," he used to tell his father.
* * *
So when an opportunity came to coach at DePaul university, the Mason Cityan accepted for a double reason. First, it was a promotion, and second, possibly more important, it would give him an opportunity to study medicine.
In 1925 he took up his work as totor [tutor?] in one line and student in another. His freshman year in medical school was spent at Loyola university, and the rest of the work was taken at Rush medical school. The fact that he was able to turn out powerful football teams and at the same time keep up his work is a tribute to Eddie Anderson's ability and determination.
Following his graduation from Rush, Eddie Anderson became Dr. Edward N. Anderson and football was shoved into the background while he spent year's internship in St. Joseph's hospital in Chicago and then launched a private practice. For a time he was company physician for a large Chicago department store.
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But the call of football, the keen fall air, the clash of wits, the crashing contacts of keen limbed American youths, and the character building, spiritual side of the great American game could not be forgotten.
And finally, one day in 1933, a long distance telephone call came from Worcester, Mass., the home of Holy Cross college, asking if Dr. Edward N. Anderson would be interested in coaching the Crusaders.
The upshot of it was, of course, that Eddie went to Holy Cross. But he didn't go alone, for while still in medical school he had met Miss Mary Brodrick and on the day he took one of his final examinations he was married to her. That was in February, 1929. And also going along were Edward N. Anderson, Jr., and Jerome Anderson, two additions to the family>
Six years of coaching at Holy Cross brought an almost phenomenal record. Anderson coached teams proved themselves almost unbeatable. In 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938 seasons they lost only three games and tied one.
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But although football coaching took a certain amount of his time, Dr. Anderson spent a good deal of it in his other profession, medicine. He became a physician [head of eye, ear, nose and throat clinic] for the veterans' bureau at Boston and maintained an office for his work in the federal building there.
But finally Dr. Anderson accepted the offer, for the University of Iowa has a fine school of medicine and he would have many opportunities there for the work which shares an equal if not greater place in his heart.
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There is no need to tell the story of the explosive rise of the lowly Hawkeyes to national prominence as they stormed through a difficult gridiron schedule under Dr. Eddie Anderson last fall. The story is already well known to all Iowans.
Now preparations are well under way for another season, Spring practice is held each afternoon and the Iowa coach is still the man who demands speed, heads up football, and more speed. He's already hard at work building another strong team.
But in the mornings Dr. Anderson is the man of science, following his profession in the university hospital. Displaying a special interest in surgery, he now has a chance to "cut 'em up," a chance he utilizes deftly and with the skill that relieves or corrects - that puts sick or injured persons on the road to recovery again.
In addition to Edward N., Jr. and Jerome, Dr. and Mrs. Anderson are the parents of a third son, 3 year old Jimmy. Eddie's father still lives in Mason City, while his brother is now practicing law in Chicago.
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Eddie Anderson placed professional football in the NFL for the Rochester Jeffersons, Rochester, New York, in 1922, and the Chicago Cardinals from 1922 to 1925, winning the championship in 1925.
Eddie was the head football coach at Columbia College Duhawks (present-day Loras College), Dubuque, Iowa, 1922 - 1924.
Eddie was the head basketball coach at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, 1925 - 1912, tallying a mark of 25-21.
Eddie was the head football coach at DePaul University, Blue Demons, 1925 - 1931.
Eddie was the head football coach at College of the Holy Cross (a.k.a. Holy Cross) Crusaders, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1933-36, 1950-64.
Eddie was the head football coach at the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa City, Iowa, 1939-42, 1946-49.
Eddie compiled a career football record of 201-128-15.
NOTE: Eddie died of a heart attack at Clearwater, Florida, on April 24, 1974. Taking a leave of absence, Eddie served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II from 1943 to 1945. He was inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1962, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971. Sports Illustrated selected Eddie Anderson as the 45th greatest sports figure in the history of the State of Iowa in 1999.
In his acceptance speech for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, Eddie summed up his philosophy by stating, "The victory most savored and cherished is the one that didn't come about by beating the rules, but by playing within them where defeat is only a condition of the moment."
Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette
Stats from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Anderson_(football_coach)
Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014
Stats on webpage
Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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