Joseph Orlean Christian (May 10, 1898 – October 21, 1979) was an

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

, basketball, and baseball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

from 1934 to 1949 and as the head baseball coach there from 1936 to 1961. Christian was also the school's

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

from 1950 to 1966 and filled in as interim head basketball coach during the 1935–36 season. He served as the first commissioner of the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the a ...

, from 1966 to 1971. Christian died on October 21, 1979, at the age of 81 in a convalescent home in

Willimantic, Connecticut Willimantic is a census-designated place located in Windham, Connecticut, United States. Previously organized as a city and later as a Borough (Connecticut), borough, Willimantic is currently one of two Local government in Connecticut#Special ta ...

. The University of Connecticut's home baseball field,

J. O. Christian Field J. O. Christian Field was a baseball stadium in Storrs, Connecticut. It was the home field of the Connecticut Huskies baseball team of the NCAA Division I's American Athletic Conference (The American) from 1968 through 2019. The stadium held seat ...

, is named in his honor. Christian's 66 wins as head football coach at Connecticut were the most in program history until

Randy Edsall Randy Douglas Edsall (born August 27, 1958) is an American former American football, football coach who recently served as the head football coach for UConn Huskies football, Connecticut from 1999 to 2010 and again from 2017 until his abrupt reti ...

surpassed him in 2010.

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

Baseball

The following table depicts Christian's record as head baseball coach at Connecticut.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, J. Orlean 1898 births 1979 deaths UConn Huskies athletic directors UConn Huskies baseball coaches UConn Huskies football coaches UConn Huskies men's basketball coaches Yankee Conference commissioners People from Story County, Iowa