George Herbert McCracken (June 20, 1899 – March 11, 1995) 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 ...

player and coach. McCracken played football as a running back at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

from 1918 to 1920 under coach "Pop" Warner and was a member of Pittsburgh's 1918 national championship team. He served as the head coach at

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 ...

from 1921 to 1923 and at

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

from 1924 to 1935, compiling a career college football record of 75–48–7. His 1926

Lafayette Leopards The Lafayette Leopards represent the 23 Division I varsity athletic teams of Lafayette College and compete in the Patriot League. There are 11 men's teams, 11 women's teams, and one co-ed team. The club teams also compete as the Leopards. Tho ...

team was recognized as a national champion by Parke H. Davis. That same year his former coach's Pop Warner's Stanford Indians were recognized as the national champions by a different publication. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1973. Some, including Pop Warner, consider him to be the first to regularly implement the offensive team

huddle In sport, a huddle is the action of a team gathering together, usually in a tight circle, to strategize, motivate or celebrate. It is a popular strategy for keeping opponents insulated from sensitive information, and acts as a form of insulation ...

, beginning its use in Lafayette in 1924 to hide his instructions from the opposing team. During his coaching days, McCracken was the cofounder of the very successful Scholastic Inc publishing concern, which he was associated with for 63 years. He was also a brother 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 while he was a student at the University of Pittsburgh.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* 1899 births 1995 deaths American football halfbacks Allegheny Gators football coaches Lafayette Leopards football coaches Pittsburgh Panthers football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pittsburgh {{1920s-collegefootball-coach-stub