Pappy Waldorf

October 3, 1902 – Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf was a coach who transformed programs and turned them into winners. The National Football Foundation shares its story with us. It explains that Pappy started his coaching career at Oklahoma City, which, before his arrival, had won only one game in three seasons. In their first year with Coach Waldorf, the team had 5 “W” s; after year two, they notched up another 8 wins. In 1928, he spent time as an assistant at Kansas, and then the following season took the reins once more, coaching Oklahoma State, which had a dismal 1-7 record in 1928. During the 1929-1935 campaigns with Pappy at the helm, the team compiled a 34-10-7 record and won all four Missouri Conference Championships, never losing to rival Oklahoma.

1934 was a year of movement once again, and Waldorf took over a Kansas State University program that had never won a championship. That same year, Pappy guided them to the Big 6 Title! In the 1935 season at Northwestern, the team sported a record of 4-3-1, but one of the wins was over a very talented Notre Dame team, which earned Pappy Waldorf the Coach of the Year Award—the very first time the honor was bestowed. The following season, the Wildcats won the Big 10 Conference. He left there after 12 brilliant seasons to coach at California University on the West Coast. Cal had not seen a winning season in 8 years, but in the first year of Pappy’s tenure, they were 9-1 and Pacific Coast Champs. The man had a knack for picking up programs, and the National Football Foundation recognized it, placing Pappy Waldorf in their College Football Hall of Fame in 1966.