He's the only person inducted into both the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame — AND he was so noteworthy that he was in the first class of inductees in both. For good measure, he was also named to the first ever All-American football squad, and in his day was one of the most dominant college baseball pitchers in the country.
Without this mostly forgotten West Orange resident, basketball and football would not exist as we know them today.
His name was Amos Alonzo Stagg (his family called him Lonnie), and even legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne admitted: “All football comes from Stagg.” When asked where he got his innovative plays from, Rockne explained: “I took them from Stagg, and Stagg took them from God.”
Stagg effectively created the game of football as we now know it, pioneering the forward pass and inventing the lateral, the reverse, the huddle, the T-formation, the place kick, man in motion, uniform numbers, the tackling dummy and a slew of other innovations. For decades he was college football’s winningest coach (until that record was won by the legendary Bear Bryant), and has numerous stadiums, schools, awards, and even the Division III championship game named after him.
But today, even here in his hometown of West Orange, most people don't know anything about the man whose name is on the sign of this small park.
Stagg also played in the first ever basketball game with James Naismith, and was the one who turned the sport into the 5-on-5 matchup we play today. He was also a star pitcher on the Yale University baseball team, leading them to five straight championships; he was offered a contract to play pro for the New York Nationals (who later became the Giants), but turned it down, and later invented the batting cage. For good measure, he also coached U.S. track stars to gold medals in the Olympics.
Although he was an incredible athlete and inventor of sports rules and equipment, coaching was Stagg’s lifelong calling. And “lifelong” isn’t an exaggeration — after being forced to retire as the University of Chicago’s football coach when he turned 70, Stagg moved west and was hired at the College of the Pacific, where he was head coach until he was 84…and then took a job as his son’s assistant coach at Susquehanna and later as an assistant at Stockton Junior College in California, where he finally retired for good at age 98.
At Chicago, he won seven Big Ten championships and one national championship; at Pacific, he built their football program and then went on to win three Far Western Conference titles (and national recognition as “Coach of the Year” at the incredible age of 81). All told, he won a total of 314 games (the most ever until Bear Bryant passed him in 1981) — much of that with the assistance of his wife Stella, who sat next to him on the bench diagramming plays and crunching stats. He also created the American Football Coaches Association and the National Interscholastic Basketball Tournament.
But all of his remarkable accomplishments might pale in comparison to his generosity. Stagg grew up in a very poor family here in West Orange, and from a young age had to do odd jobs to help his family make ends meet (his “ball” to play sports as a kid were literally inflated pig bladders from hogs that his dad butchered). Despite insisting on not being paid more than normal college professors, Stagg purchased 40 acres of land and donated it to the College of the Pacific for its athletic fields; at Chicago, he spent $1,000 to donate chimes to tell athletes (and other students) when it was time to get a good night’s rest; as an Olympic coach, he would often pay the travel expenses of his athletes to go overseas.
One great story is that one time a group of kids were playing in his yard in California, and a man offered to tell them to go away so they didn’t kill the grass. “I’m not trying to grow grass,” Stagg replied. “I’m trying to grow kids!”
When Stagg turned 100, President John F. Kennedy saluted him by saying, “His character and career have been an inspiration since his undergraduate days for countless Americans. Few men in our history have set so persuasive and shining examples as a teacher, coach and citizen. His integrity and dedication to all the goals he has set for himself are unmatched.”
Amos Alonzo Stagg finally died in 1965, at the age of 102. West Orange kids today grow up playing soccer and baseball on the fields named after him in this park, and his old house (a private residence) actually still stands on the other side of town on Valley Road.
Random historical side-note: Lonnie Stagg is also tangentially connected to the development of nuclear power and the atomic bomb — when Enrico Fermi and his team created the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, on December 2, 1942, it was in his laboratory hidden underneath Chicago’s Stagg Field — the birthplace of the nuclear age.
Enough history, now for the cache: You're looking for a plastic ammo can, hidden from easy view. There's plenty of room inside for trackables and other small prizes. Inside are a geocoin for the FTF, plus a lightbulb keychain and some historic photo postcards commemorating West Orange's most famous former resident, Thomas Edison.
Congrats to Campfire for the FTF!