Talk:Tom Nugent
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"Under Construction. Start Date 01/25/2006. Please do not add to this page until I'm done with it. This page, when complete, will be a comprehensive bio of Tom Nugent, 1913-2006, former NCAA Division 1A Head Football Coach, sportscaster, PR man, and Inventor of the I Formation.
Thank you. John Nugent (son)."
I have transferred this info from the page itself, where it was inappropriate (see edit summary) Joe 23:08, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Hall of Fame
I think Misfit is entirely correct. The College Football Hall of Fame database doesn't include Nugent; I had assumed it was simply a clerical error, in view of the frequency with which the claim about his being in the CF HoF was repeated in his obituaries, but I have come to believe he wasn't therein inducted. Surely his son, if he returns to compile the biography, will let us know if he believes the case to be otherwise.Joe 23:55, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Clarification: In a congratulatory letter, the Hall of Fame committee had initially announced to Coach Nugent (my father) that he would be officially inducted to the Hall in South Bend Indiana, somwhere around the year 1998. They later determined that there was an "error" and that in fact, he didn't quite meet the minimum required number of NCAA sanctioned wins to qualify for induction. According to Coach Nugent, the discrepancy was due to the fact that several of his wins at VMI were against what were called "Service Teams". He told me that during WWII, due to a severe shortage of capable male players in college (too many were at war and not in school), the armed services fielded their own football teams. For that reason, wins against those Service Teams were not counted as sanctioned NCAA wins, and therefore shouldn't have shown on his overall record, though somehow they did, at least in the case of the HoF records at the time the acceptance letter was written. Thus, once the true number was determined, the induction was retracted. Please note that these Service Teams should not be confused with the NCAA sanctioned armed service teams, i.e. the Navy Midshipmen, Army Black Knights, etc, which, had Nugent played them and won, would have been counted as wins. In any case, the original acceptance letter was retracted, and Nugent was never inducted. But the following year, a special tribute display was set up at the HoF to honor Nugent's accomplishments and contributions to the game, especially his creation of the I Formation. I'm told that this display is permanent, and I do know it was still there as late as 2004. The misunderstanding mentioned above, and the fact that a tribute to him was installed at South Bend is probably the reason why it has been said by some that he was accepted to the Hall of Fame. In fact, he actually was, but only for a week or two! I can verify that this story is true, because I have a copy of the congratulatory letter from the HoF which I made from the original letter itself. Edited by John Nugent (one of his 9 children), December 11, 2006
