The Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
April 3, 1955

This story starts with an Iowa boy of 15 who decided, many years ago, that he wanted to become a baton twirler.

His destiny, instead, was to become the man, who, more than any other perhaps, was responsible for the advancement of college football in the south.

It is the story of Dan McGUGIN, whose stepping stones to his particular niche in immortality were Drake, Michigan and Vanderbilt universities.

Now Dan McUGIN joins The Des Moines Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame, the thirty-first man in the history of sports in Iowa to be so honored.

They're thinking out now, the men who knew McGUGIN in the late '90s, but they're not all gone. One who remembers was telling me:

"They called him 'Bellering Dan.' He had a voice like a bull on the football field."

But Dan McGUGIN was a total stranger to football when he was a high school boy at Tingley, Ia. The American game was hardly more than 20 years old. It had not been adopted in McGUGIN's home town, in Ringgold county, Iowa, where Dan was born July 29, 1879.

It was a most indirect approach, in fact, that brought the first simultaneous mention of football and McGUGIN. It happened like this:

A vocal quartet from Drake university, W. W. WHARTON included, was in Tingley for a Sunday evening church service one day in 1896.

WHARTON, a man of many talents, demonstrated his baton twirling abilities between musical numbers. The same WHARTON had been the coach of the first Drake football team, in 1894.

After ther service that evening a stalwart young man approached WHARTON. He was intrigued by the baton twirling. He wondered if he could learn to do it. But the strong young physique suggested other possibilities to a man who had coached football.

"Come to Drake university," WHARTON suggested, "and we'll make you as fine a tackle as there is."

The following autumn McGUGIN came to Drake. He was a boy of 18.

The record of his football days at Drake is sketchy at best. They made him a substitute tackle on the team of 1898, captained by the late Channing SMITH. He became a first-stringer in '99. He played tackle but, under the rules of that era, he scored some touchdowns. He did some of the punting.

McGUGIN helped Drake beat Iowa and Nebraska, among others, in 1898. In the two seasons the early Bulldogs played only 12 games, winning seven, losing four, with one tie.

The record will show that McGUGIN was a pleasant, fun-loving student who loved a practical joke and won a place as a campus leader. But you seek in vain for the details of his individual play. The record was at least a little more complete when McGUGIN enrolled at Michigan.

He had earned his degree at Drake in the spring of 1901. He entered the university of Michigan that fall, as a law student. The famed Fielding H. YOST had just reported at Michigan, where he was to develop some of the greatest teams the game has known.

McGUGIN joined YOST's football squad, and from that day forward the careers of the two men had much in common.

Under YOST it was a guard's assignment for McGUGIN. A key spot in the mighty rush line that still draws acclaim. In that day of mass attack McGUGIN fielded a team that smashed all opponents in 1901 and repeated the hammering in 1902.

The Wolverines slammed through 11 straight foes without being scored on in 1901. They scored 550 points. They were on the rampage again in 1902 and steamrolled 11 more opponents. They mangled Michigan State, 119-0, and riddled Iowa, 107-0.

In two seasons Michigan stacked up 1,194 points and touchdowns were a bit cheaper in that era, as far as value was concerned. Opponents made only 12 points in the same two seasons.

McGUGIN played in the first Rose Bowl game, Jan. 1, 1902, when Michigan smashed Stanford, 49-0. He played all the way, as did all of his Wolverine mates. Michigan made no substitutions that day.

Michigan's men found the university "M" hard to attain. Only eight letter winners are listed in 1901 and 10 in 1902. McGUGIN won one each season. And he won his law degree. He remained at Michigan in the fall of 1903, as an assistant coach.

McGUGIN learned, after the 1903 season, that Vanderbilt university was in need of a coach. He forwarded a somewhat timed application for the job but the weeks moved along and he heard nothing. And during the interim he was offered a coaching post at Western Reserve in Cleveland.

McGUGIN deliberated, then decided to accept. He dispatched a telegram to Western Reserve. Then, ironically, in a matter of minutes, came the long-awaited answer from Vanderbilt. His application had been approved. The job was his. And he had just committed himself to take another job!

"I got that Vanderbilt job by three minutes," he told a friend later. "I overtook the telegram before they had sent it to Western Reserves.

And so it was that Dan McGUGIN went to Vanderbilt, and to Nashville, where he was to become a fixture in American football.

More than that -- he became an outstanding lawyer, a member of the Tennessee state senate, president of the American Football Coaches Association, and, posthumously, a member of the National Football Hall of Fame.

McGUGIN came out of football's pioneer period. In his day the wedge, not the 'T' or single wing, was the thing. The rules required a team to make five yards in three downs, not 10 yards in four downs as today's rules specify.

And a team that passed tha ball, or batted it forward, even accidentally, was violating the rules and was assessed a penalty of five yards.

But out of that pioneer era came the handsome, adaptable McGUGIN, to become one of football's great coaches in the modern style of play.

Before he died while visiting with his law partner in Nashville Jan. 19, 1936, he had coached Vanderbilt through the golden era of its history.

We mentioned, earlier, that the careers of YOST and McGUGIN had much in common. They were this close:

When McGUGIN's marriage to Miss Virginia FITE approached, he invited YOST to serve as best man. YOST accepted the invitation, met the bride's sister, and married her.

YOST and McGUGIN matched their teams against each other many times after McGUGIN went to Vanderbilt. The edge was with YOST but it is significant that out of the first 38 games McGugin's teams played at Vanderbilt, only four were lost. Michigan won all four, by narrow margins.

At the outset of McGUGIN's entry into southern football one commentator disclosed that football was on the upgrade. Five key cities of the south, Nashville included, had attracted a combined total of 35,000 on one Saturday!

It wasn't to be too long until observers were to see that many and more in the Vanderbilt stadium on a single day.

Except for a stretch in military service during World War I, McGUGIN served Vanderbilt through 30 years. He brought home 13 champions. His teams won 200 games while losing 57 and playing 18 ties. His Commodores piled up 6,812 points. The opposition got 1,692 for an all-time average score of approximately 25-7.

Wrote Fred RUSSELL of Nashville, in his book "Fifty Years of Vanderbilt Football:

"In his first year as coach, McGUGIN developed a team that created a sensation in the south. "From that first year (1904) until 1908 he was unscored on by a southern team. For years he ruled supreme in Dixie, and his teams won many glorious intersectional victories.

"More than any one man, he was responsible for the progress of southern football.

"... He was the first coach to successfully work the onside kick. He was among the first to bring out guards in the interference.

"Upon retirement in 1934 he was the oldest coach in America in point of service with one institution. If ever a coach gave his life to the college he served, Dan McGugin gave his to Vanderbilt. His name will never die."

Nearly 20 years have gone since Dan McGUGIN passed from the scene. His name, the name of the boy who wanted to become a baton twirler, stands preserved in perpetuity in the state's and the nation's football archives.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2009