Playing career

Agase played

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

and

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini football The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of ...

team from 1944 to 1947. He was a member of the Illini team that won the

1947 Rose Bowl The 1947 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game, the 33rd edition of the Rose Bowl Game. The Illinois Fighting Illini defeated the UCLA Bruins, 45–14. Illinois halfbacks Buddy Young and Jules Rykovich shared the Player of the Game awar ...

. He was selected by the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

with the 131st pick of the

1948 NFL draft The 1948 NFL draft was held on December 19, 1947, at the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh. This was the second year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery, with the previous year's winner Chicago Bears ineligible from t ...

, but never played a game for the team.

Coaching career

During the 1948–49 and 1949–50 school years, Agase was a teacher at Paxton High School in

Paxton, Illinois Paxton is a city in and the county seat of Ford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,450 at the 2020 census. History The town was initially named Prairie City in the late 1840s, then Prospect City by an Illinois Central Railr ...

. He coached football and track for the Mustangs and also started the school's first wrestling team. His two-year coaching record in football was 9–7. On July 30, 1950, Agase returned to Illinois as an assistant coach. In 1955, he moved to

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

, where he was the Spartan's defensive line coach under

Duffy Daugherty Hugh Duffy Daugherty (September 8, 1915 – September 25, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Michigan State University from 1954 to 1972, compiling a record of 109–69–5. His 1955 and 1957 and 1965 ...

. During Mr. Agase's tenure as an assistant, MSU's football team won the Rose Bowl in 1956.

Toronto Argonauts

On December 4, 1959, Agase was named head coach of the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...

, replacing interim head coach Steve Owen, who was retained briefly as Agase's assistant. Toronto had finished each of the previous four seasons in last place in the four-team

Interprovincial Rugby Football Union The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. T ...

, and had not had a winning season since winning the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

in 1952. Agase introduced an adaptation of Michigan State's double-wing "T" offensive formation, in which the two halfbacks shifted into a wide position to become wide receivers. Acquiring

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

veteran quarterback

Tobin Rote Tobin Cornelius Rote (January 18, 1928 – June 27, 2000) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadia ...

to run Agase's offence, the Argonauts won their first five games and finished in first place with a 10–4 record, Rote setting new IRFU records for completions in a game (38) and touchdown passes in a season (38), and passing for a record-tying seven touchdown passes in a single game on two occasions. However, the playoff final saw Toronto upset by second-place

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, who had beaten them in three of five encounters in the regular season and won both legs of the two-game series. The novelty of Agase's offensive system having worn off, his injury-plagued team struggled to find consistency in the 1961 season, but finished strongly with wins in four of the last six games to secure third-place with a 7-6-1 record, the first time in nine seasons that Toronto had strung together back-to-back winning seasons. Fan and press frustration in the first half of the season were directed at Agase and Rote in particular, but the mood changed after a 43–19 upset victory in Ottawa to win the Eastern semi-final, and a 25–7 win in a sold-out

Exhibition Stadium Canadian National Exhibition Stadium (commonly known as Exhibition Stadium or CNE Stadium and nicknamed The Ex) was a multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the grounds of Exhibition Place. Originally built for Canadian National ...

over

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

in the first leg of the Eastern final. But a disastrous 20–2 loss in the second leg in Hamilton, setting up an overtime period in which the Tiger-Cats scored four unanswered touchdowns, sealed Agase's fate in Toronto. The blame for this historic collapse, which recalled the 20-point blown lead in the 1960 final, was placed at the coach's door owing to some questionable play calling when Toronto had a chance to kick for a single point in the last minute of regulation time, and Agase was dismissed on August 25, 1962, after an 0–3 start to the 1962 season. His replacement, assistant coach

Nobby Wirkowski Norbert "Nobby" Wirkowski (August 20, 1926 – October 15, 2014) was an American and Canadian football player and coach. He is best known as quarterback of the Toronto Argonauts. The touchdown he engineered in the 1952 Grey Cup turned out to be ...

, guided Toronto to a last-place, 4-10 finish, and the team would not have another winning season until 1968. Agase's overall coaching record with the Argonauts, 17–13–1, ranks among the best in team history.

Personal life

Agase's older brother

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

was also a football player and coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agase, Lou 1924 births 2006 deaths Players of American football from Evanston, Illinois American football offensive linemen American football tight ends Evanston Township High School alumni Illinois Fighting Illini football players Coaches of American football from Illinois High school football coaches in Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Michigan State Spartans football coaches Toronto Argonauts coaches American people of Assyrian descent