Hal Pennington was a former American athletics coach. He was the founder and first head coach of the

AFL II AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

Cincinnati Bengals. He also had a 33-year career in amateur baseball, winning four

National Amateur Baseball Federation The National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a governing body for amateur baseball in the United States. The organization was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1914 and is the oldest continually-operat ...

World Series titles.

Early life and education

Pennington attended St. Xavier High School where he was a three-sport athlete, graduating in 1930. He was an all-city first baseman in baseball and played halfback and fullback in football. In basketball, he led the team in scoring his junior and senior years. Pennington attended

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...

where he served as co-captain of the basketball team his senior year. He went on to play professional basketball prior to the NBA.

Career

Pennington was the head coach of the Midwest Football League Cincinnati Model Shoes. He left after one season to form the Cincinnati Bengals of the second American Football League. Pennington became a legendary amateur baseball coach in Cincinnati, winning four NABF World Series titles. He retired from baseball with 1,392 wins and .862 winning percentage. He coached 60 players that went on to play professional baseball, 11 who went on to the major leagues including

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, and Len Matuszek. Pennington retired from coaching in 1988. Throughout his sports career, he recorded 1,577 wins and 246 losses among all sports.

Recognition

In 1987, Pennington was inducted into the St. Xavier High School hall of fame. He is also a member of the Hamilton County Sports Hall of Fame, Buddy La-Rosa High School Hall of Fame, and Xavier University Basketball Hall of Fame.

References

{{Reflist Xavier Musketeers men's basketball players American football executives St. Xavier High School (Ohio) alumni Baseball managers Coaches of American football from Ohio American men's basketball players Basketball players from Cincinnati