John R. Bender

John R. Bender
Sport(s)	Football, basketball, baseball
Biographical details
Born	(1882-05-14)May 14, 1882 Sutton, Nebraska
Died	July 24, 1928(1928-07-24) (aged 46) Houston, Texas
Playing career
Football 1900–1904	Nebraska
Position(s)	Halfback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football 1906–1907 1908–1909 1910–1911 1912–1914 1915 1916–1920 Basketball 1907–1908 1916–1917 1919–1921 Baseball 1907–1908 1913–1915 1917, 1920	Washington State Haskell Institute Saint Louis Washington State Kansas State Tennessee Washington State Tennessee Tennessee Washington State Washington State Tennessee
Head coaching record
Overall	65–31–7 (football) 41–18 (basketball) 85–33–1 (baseball)
Statistics College Football Data Warehouse

John Reinhold "Chief" Bender (May 14, 1882 – July 24, 1928) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1906–1907, 1912–1914), Haskell Indian Nations University (1908–1909), St. Louis University (1910–1911), Kansas State University (1915), and the University of Tennessee (1916–1920), compiling a career record of 65–31–7. He is one of the few college football head coaches to have non-consecutive tenure at the same school. Bender was also the head basketball coach at Washington State (1907–1908) and Tennessee (1916–1917, 1919–1921), and the head baseball coach at Washington State (1907–1908, 1913–1915) and Tennessee (1917, 1920).

Playing career

A native of Sutton, Nebraska, Bender played college football at the University of Nebraska from 1900 to 1904. Due to loose eligibility standards at the time, he played five seasons for Nebraska. Bender starred at halfback for undefeated teams in 1902 and 1903, served as captain of the 1903 team, and graduated as the leading scorer in Nebraska history. However, tarnishing his image, one story recounts that he refused to play against the national powerhouse Minnesota until Nebraska paid him an acceptable amount of money.^[1]

Coaching career

After graduating from Nebraska, Bender served as head football and basketball coach at Washington State between 1906 and 1908, where he posted a 13–1 record in football. His 1907–08 basketball squad also recorded a 12–3 mark, by far the best in school history to that point. Between 1908 and 1909, Bender coached football at Haskell Indian Nations University and from 1910 to 1911 he coached football at Saint Louis University. During the 1911 season, reporters in St. Louis commented that Bender looked like a charm doll called a Billiken, which were a national fad at the time. His squad became known as "Bender's Billikens," which is the genesis of SLU's athletic nickname.^[2] Bender returned to coach Washington State football from 1912 to 1914.

In 1915, Bender was hired as head football coach at Kansas State. In his one season at K-State, his team posted a mediocre 3–4–1 record. However, Bender left a lasting mark by instituting two long-term traditions at Kansas State in 1915: starting the annual homecoming event and adopting the nickname Wildcats.

Prior to the 1916 season, Bender moved to the University of Tennessee. At the same time, the sitting head coach at Tennessee, Zora G. Clevenger moved to Kansas State, in effect trading jobs with Bender. Bender served as head football coach at the University of Tennessee from 1916 to 1920. During his tenure, he compiled a record of 18–5–4 (.741). His best season came in 1916, when his team went 8–0–1, marred only by a scoreless tie against Kentucky. Tennessee did not field football teams in 1917 and 1918, and Bender posted his worst record in 1919, when his team went 3–3–3. In his final season, he went 7–2 and recorded Tennessee's 100th victory in football, with the two losses coming against Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. He is also credited with installing the short punt formation at Tennessee.^[3]

While at Tennessee, Bender also served as basketball coach for the 1917, 1920, and 1921 seasons, recording a 29–15 mark.

After his career at Tennessee, Bender, served as a physical education instructor at the University of Houston. During this time, Bender also coached a volunteer football squad of students for the school. He named them the Cougars after his Washington State team. In turn, the college's newspaper, The Cougar followed suit when choosing their name. The university's athletics teams remain known as the Houston Cougars today.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

• John R. Bender at the College Football Data Warehouse
• John R. Bender at College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com