Glen Orin Mason (born April 9, 1950) is a former

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 ...

player and coach. Mason served as the head football coach at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

from 1986 to 1987, the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

from 1988 to 1996, and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

from 1997 to 2006, compiling a career college football record of 123–121–1.

Early life and playing career

Raised in

Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Woodbridge Township is a township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a regional hub for Central New Jersey and a major bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area located within the ...

, Mason attended

Colonia High School Colonia High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It operates as part of the ...

.Kerkhoff, Blair
"Kickoff Classic Notebook"
'' Kansas City Star'', August 28, 1993. Accessed August 7, 2019. "Mason grew up in Woodbridge, NJ, and graduated from nearby Colonia High." Mason played college football at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, graduating in 1972 with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

. He was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

on the depth chart behind

Randy Gradishar Randy Charles Gradishar (born March 3, 1952) is an American former professional football player who was a middle linebacker in the 1970s and 1980s for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). A native of Ohio, Gradishar was a tw ...

, Stan White, Vic Koegel, Arnie Jones, and Rick Middleton.

Coaching career

Mason served as an assistant coach at Ball State University,

Allegheny College he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת , mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) , faculty = 193 ...

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

, the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

, and

. He served as the outside linebackers coach and the offensive line coach at Ohio State in 1978 and 1979. In 1980, he was promoted to offensive coordinator of the Buckeyes and remained in that position through the 1985 season. Mason was head coach for

in 1986 and 1987 and the

from 1988 to 1996. In 1995, as Kansas prepared for the

Aloha Bowl The Aloha Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) college football bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. History The Aloha Bowl was established in 1982 by Mack ...

against

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, Mason accepted the head coaching position at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. Mason had a change of heart and stayed with the Jayhawks, but left for the

one season later. His first game with Minnesota in 1997 was against

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, at Aloha Stadium, Minnesota lost the game, 17–3. In January 2002, Mason was named the president of the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

. He was the third Minnesota coach to be awarded this honor joining

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was t ...

(1935) and

Murray Warmath Murray Warmath (December 26, 1912 – March 16, 2011) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 1952 to 1953 and at the University of Minnesota from 1954 to 1971, compili ...

(1968). On December 31, 2006, Minnesota fired Mason immediately following the Gophers' 44–41 overtime loss to Texas Tech in the

2006 Insight Bowl The 2006 Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game held on December 29 at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, pitted the Texas Tech Red Raiders against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. This game is tied f ...

, a game in which the Gophers blew a 38–7 third-quarter lead. At the end of the 2006 season, he had a career record of 123–121–1. Following his tenure at Minnesota, Mason became a college football analyst and broadcaster for the Big Ten Network.

Personal

Mason has two children and lives in the suburbs of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Glen 1950 births Living people American football defensive linemen Allegheny Gators football coaches Ball State Cardinals football coaches Colonia High School alumni Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Iowa State Cyclones football coaches Kansas Jayhawks football coaches Kent State Golden Flashes football coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football players Ball State University alumni Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology alumni People from Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Sportspeople from Middlesex County, New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey College football announcers

Early life and playing career

Coaching career

Personal

Head coaching record

See also

References