Frank Coughlin

Francis Edward Coughlin (February 28, 1896 – September 8, 1951) was an American football player and coach.

Frank Coughlin

Born:	(1896-02-28)February 28, 1896 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died:	September 8, 1951(1951-09-08) (aged 55)[1] Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Career information
Position(s)	Tackle
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight	220 lb (100 kg)
College	Notre Dame
Career history
As coach
1921	Rock Island Independents
As player
1921	Rock Island Independents
1921	Detroit Tigers
1921	Green Bay Packers
Career highlights and awards
Second-team All-American (1920)
Career stats
Coaching stats at Pro Football Reference
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Branch	U.S. Navy
Years of service	1917–1919
Battles / wars	World War I

Biography

War and college football

During World War I, Coughlin served in the United States Navy aboard a minesweeper.^[2] After the war, he played at the collegiate level at the University of Notre Dame. He was named captain of the 1920 football squad^[3] after the team's current captain, George Gipp withdrew from the University.

NFL career

For the 1921 season, Coughlin was named as a player-coach for the Rock Island Independents of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which was renamed the National Football League in 1922.

Coughlin promised to bring to Rock Island a Notre Dame-style offense based upon tough line play and precise, short forward passes.^[4] Assisting Coughlin with the Independents was lefthalf Jimmy Conzelman.^[4] The team finished the 1921 season with a record of 4–2–1 in the APFA, good for fifty place out of 21 teams in the association.

On October 16, 1921, down 7-0 to the Chicago Cardinals, Coughlin scored two touchdowns to help give the Independents a 14-7 lead in the second quarter. Team manager Walter Flanigan ordered tackle Ed Healey to relieve Coughlin. Once Coughlin was safely on his way toward the sideline, Healey delivered a message to Jimmy Conzelman from Flanigan, it read: "Coughlin was fired! The new coach was Conzelman!" This act marked the first and only time an owner hired a new coach in the middle of a game.^[5] Coughlin then spent the rest of the 1921 season playing for the Detroit Tigers and the Green Bay Packers.

After football

In 1923, Coughlin became a prosecutor in St. Joseph County, Indiana. From 1945–1949, he served as the assistant Attorney General of Indiana, under Governors Ralph Gates and Henry Schricker.^[2]