James Nollner "Stein" Stone Sr. (April 18, 1882 – August 25, 1926) 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 wit ...
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 ...
player and coach. "Stein" is the German for stone.
Vanderbilt University
At Vanderbilt he was a member of the
Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
Football
He was a four time
All-Southern center for
Dan McGugin's
Vanderbilt football teams, selected for the position on all-time Vanderbilt teams in 1912 and 1934.
He was also selected for an ''
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
'' Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era.
On another all-time team of Southerners, one finds "For center we shove in Stein Stone of Vanderbilt, who is about as good as man as the South ever saw. Vanderbilt will have about eight of these eleven men." He was some 6 foot 3 and 180 pounds.
1907
In the
1907 game against
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, "In the duel of centers, Stone of Vanderbilt, had the best of
"Germany" Schulz. Michigan's massive center. Stone's play was spectacular all the way." His catch on a
double-pass play then thrown near the
end zone by
Bob Blake to set up the touchdown run in by
Honus Craig that beat
Sewanee, for the SIAA championship in 1907, was cited by
Grantland Rice
Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.
Early years
Rice w ...
as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.
Basketball
On top of this, Stein was supposedly "the finest basketball player in Dixie."
Coaching career
He served as the
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...
of the
Clemson college football program in
1908
Events
January
* January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica.
* January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 46 ...
. The Tigers won just a single game, though captain Stick Coles was selected second-team All-Southern. Stein later worked as an engineer in
Bristol, Tennessee, where he and his wife, the former Camille Evans, whom he married in 1911, lived.
He died in 1926 in Nashville of
lung and
oral cancer. He is buried at
Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.
[Tennessee Death Records, Ancestry]
Head coaching record
Football
Basketball
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Stein
1882 births
1926 deaths
American football centers
American football linebackers
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Tennessee
Clemson Tigers football coaches
Vanderbilt Commodores football players
Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball coaches
Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players
All-Southern college football players
Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee
Basketball players from Nashville, Tennessee