James Nollner "Stein" Stone Sr. (April 18, 1882 – August 25, 1926) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. "Stein" is the German for stone.

Vanderbilt University

At Vanderbilt he was a member of the

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States-based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapter ...

fraternity.

Football

He was a four time All-Southern

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for

Dan McGugin Daniel Earle McGugin (July 29, 1879 – January 23, 1936) was an American football player and coach, as well as a lawyer. He served as the head football coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1904 to 1917 and again from ...

Vanderbilt football The Vanderbilt Commodores football program represents Vanderbilt University in the sport of American football. The Commodores compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the East Divis ...

teams, selected for the position on all-time Vanderbilt teams in 1912 and 1934. He was also selected for an ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

'' Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era. On another all-time team of Southerners, one finds "For center we shove in Stein Stone of Vanderbilt, who is about as good as man as the South ever saw. Vanderbilt will have about eight of these eleven men." He was some 6 foot 3 and 180 pounds.

1907

In the

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 11 – The French warship ''Jean Bart'' sinks off the coast of Morocco ...

game against

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, "In the duel of centers, Stone of Vanderbilt, had the best of "Germany" Schulz. Michigan's massive center. Stone's play was spectacular all the way." His catch on a double-pass play then thrown near the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

by Bob Blake to set up the touchdown run in by Honus Craig that beat Sewanee, for the SIAA championship in 1907, was cited by

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.

Basketball

On top of this, Stein was supposedly "the finest basketball player in Dixie."

Coaching career

He served as the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the Clemson college football program in 1908. The Tigers won just a single game, though captain Stick Coles was selected second-team All-Southern. Stein later worked as an engineer in

Bristol, Tennessee Bristol is a city in the State of Tennessee. Located in Sullivan County, its population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. T ...

, where he and his wife, the former Camille Evans, whom he married in 1911, lived. He died in 1926 in Nashville of lung and

oral cancer Oral cancer, also known as mouth cancer, is cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat. In the mouth, it most commonly starts as a painless white patch, that thickens, develops red patches, an ulcer, and continues to grow. When on ...

. He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.Tennessee Death Records, Ancestry

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Stein 1882 births 1926 deaths American football centers American football linebackers American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Tennessee Clemson Tigers football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores football players Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players All-Southern college football players Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee Basketball players from Nashville, Tennessee