Michael J. Pecarovich (September 23, 1898 – March 23, 1965) 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 ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

, and

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. He served as the head football coach at Loyola University of Los Angeles—now known as

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

—in 1928 and 1939,

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the ...

from 1931 to 1938, and the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Sch ...

from 1960 to 1961. Pecarovich also coached two professional teams, the Los Angeles Angels of the

Pacific Coast Professional Football League The Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL), also known as the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL) and Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a professional American football minor league based in California. It operated from 1940 through 194 ...

and the San Francisco Clippers of the California-based

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

Early life

Pecarovich was the son of Croatian immigrants (his father Nikola was a Dalmatian mariner) born in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

, Pecarovich attended

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

, where he played on the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

from 1919 to 1921 as a

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and an end. Pecarovich then transferred to

back home in Spokane, where he played football as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

under head coach Gus Dorais. He graduated in 1922, and was an assistant under Dorais. In 1924, Pecarovich earned a law degree and passed the

Coaching career

After law school, Pecarovich coached the Gonzaga High School football team for two years, then led the Los Angeles Angels football team in the Pacific Coast Professional League, until 1928. That year, Pecarovich took over as head football coach at Loyola, where he installed the Knute Rockne system. The Lions amassed a 5–3 record in 1928. In 1929 and 1930, he coached Cathedral High School in Los Angeles. Pecarovich returned to his alma mater Gonzaga in 1931 to succeed Ray Flaherty as head While there, Pecarovich appointed

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

, a friend and former classmate, as an assistant coach, and made appearances in several movies alongside Crosby."Pecarovich – 'Quite A Guy'"
'' Tri City Herald'' (March 24, 1965) He remained at Gonzaga through 1938 and compiled a record in eight seasons."Michael J. "Mike" Pecarovich Records by Year"
, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved June 6, 2011. In 1939, Pecarovich returned to coach Loyola, which gave him a three-year contract; the Gonzaga administration agreed to release him from the two years remaining on his His second stint with Loyola was not successful, his team earning a record, and he was replaced by Marty Brill. He applied for the head coaching position at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...

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, but was not hired despite being considered a Pecarovich coached the San Francisco Clippers in 1944 in the short-lived

of the Pacific Coast. He led the franchise to a second-place finish with a record in the eight-team league's only season. He later served as an assistant coach under Flaherty with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

professional football team, then taught at St. Anthony High School in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporat ...

for ten years in the 1950s. On April 27, 1960, the

announced it had signed Pecarovich to a two-year contract as its head football coach. He led the Toreros to a record over two seasons. However, after the 1961 season, the school disbanded its football program.

Later life

Pecarovich earned a reputation as a skilled after-dinner speaker, and provided many lectures in his later life. He also used his oration skills during halftime pep talks, and people who knew both men compared him to

Knute Rockne Knut ( Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used ...

, who had been a famed motivator as the Notre Dame coach. Pecarovich died of a heart attack on March 22, 1965 in his home in Rolling Hills, California, and was buried at All Souls Cemetery in Long Beach. He was the namesake for Pecarovich Field at Gonzaga, a $25,000

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

venue which opened in 1967; it was renamed August/ART Stadium in 1996 and razed in 2003 to construct the McCarthey Center. The Gonzaga Athletic Hall of Fame inducted Pecarovich in its class of 1991."Gonzaga Athletic Hall of Fame"

website, retrieved June 6, 2011

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pecarovich, Mike 1898 births 1965 deaths American football quarterbacks Gonzaga Bulldogs football coaches Gonzaga Bulldogs football players Loyola Lions football coaches Santa Clara Broncos football players San Diego Toreros football coaches High school football coaches in California High school football coaches in Washington (state) Male actors from Washington (state) Washington (state) lawyers 20th-century American lawyers Players of American football from Spokane, Washington