Lewis P. Andreas (February 25, 1895 – June 16, 1983) 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 ...

coach and college athletic administrator. He was the head coach for Syracuse University's men's basketball and football programs beginning in the 1920s. The

Sterling, Illinois Sterling is a city in Whiteside County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,782 at the 2020 census, down from 15,370 in 2010. Formerly nicknamed "Hardware Capital of the World", the city has long been associated with manufacturing an ...

native played baseball, basketball and football at

University of Illinois 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 Univer ...

as a freshman before transferring to Syracuse. He then played football and baseball, but not basketball, for the Orangemen (now Orange) before embarking on his coaching career. Andreas coached the Orangemen basketball team from 1924 to 1950, except one year

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

when the team was suspended due to travel restrictions. He guided the Orangemen basketball program to a 358–134 (.726) overall record in 24 years. Led by standout

Vic Hanson Victor Arthur Hanson (July 30, 1903 – April 10, 1982) was an American football player and coach, basketball player, and baseball player. A three-sport college athlete, he played football, basketball, and baseball at Syracuse University in th ...

, his 1925–26 team finished the season with a 19–1 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

. In football, Andreas compiled a 15–10–3 overall record between 1927 and 1929. His winning percentage is the highest in program history and 358 career victories are second, only behind

Jim Boeheim James Arthur Boeheim Jr. ( ; born November 17, 1944) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach of the Syracuse Orange men's team of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Boeheim has guided the Orange to ten Big East Conference ...

. At the university he was also the Director of Physical Education and Athletics from 1937 until retirement in 1964. In 1950 he was replaced by assistant coach Marc Guley. Off the court he served on the NCAA Basketball Committee on two separate occasions, 1943–44 and 1954–58. He was also was president of the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University ...

. In 1948 he was inducted into the Helms Collegiate Hall of Fame in 1948. He also 'had a

cup of coffee A "cup of coffee" is a North American sports idiom for a short time spent by a minor league player at the major league level. The idea behind the term is that the player was only in the big leagues long enough to have a cup of coffee before ...

' in the professional leagues as a player for the Syracuse Pros. He died in 1983 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Andreas was inducted into the Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

References

External links

*
OrangeHoops.org profile of Andreas

1895 births 1983 deaths American football ends American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Baseball catchers Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini baseball players Illinois Fighting Illini football players Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players People from Sterling, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois Syracuse Orange athletic directors Syracuse Orange football coaches Syracuse Orange football players Syracuse Orange men's basketball coaches Syracuse Orangemen baseball players Syracuse Pros players {{1890s-US-basketball-bio-stub