Posted on 05/04/2007 9:03:22 PM PDT by fkabuckeyesrule
Alex Agase, who coached Northwestern's football team for nine years after a storied college career in which he became the only player to win All-America honors at two schools, died Thursday in a hospital near his home in Tarpon Springs, Fla. He was 85.
Funeral arrangements are pending for Agase, a World War II veteran who fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and received a Purple Heart.
Agase, an Evanston High School alumnus, first served as an assistant to Ara Parseghian at Northwestern from 1956 to '63, then succeeded Parseghian, who left to coach Notre Dame. He remained the Wildcats' head coach through the 1972 season.
Although Agase's overall record was only 50-83-2, he won national coach of the year honors from the Football Writers of America in 1970 after guiding the Wildcats to a 6-4 record that included a 6-1 mark in the Big Ten, losing only to Ohio State. The Wildcats avenged that loss the next year, when their 7-4 record (6-3 Big Ten) included a 14-10 victory at Ohio State -- the program's last win at Ohio Stadium.
''Northwestern University is saddened to hear of the passing of Alex Agase, a tremendous college player and coach,'' NU athletic director Mark Murphy said in a statement. ''I know our former student-athletes who played for coach Agase had great respect for him as an individual and coach. He had one of the longest tenures of any Northwestern football coach. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Agase family.''
The Agase family includes the legions of players he coached.
''Coach Agase impressed me most with his integrity, bluntness, wisdom and courage,'' said Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, a former cornerback under Agase. ''I talked with him by phone just two or three weeks ago. He was playing poker with some buddies, and he sounded as strong and lively as ever. I thought he was invincible and would last forever. That funeral of his will be packed because his life touched so many people in a deep, positive way.''
Agase earned All-America honors as a guard at Illinois (1942) and Purdue ('43) before serving a two-year tour in the Marines. He returned to Illinois in 1946, was named All-America a third time and led the Illini to a 45-14 rout of UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
In addition this man served his country during WW2 I gather. RIP.
RIP.
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