Bezdek, Hugo F.
Baseball
b. April 1, 1884, Prague, Czechoslovakia
d. Sept. 19, 1952
Strange but true: The only man ever to serve as a major league manager and a head coach in the NFL was a native of Czechoslovakia. Bezdek's family came to the U. S. when he was five years old and settled in Chicago. He played fullback under Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1906.
He became head coach at the University of Oregon, compiling a 5-0-1 record in his one season there. After a year out of football, he took over at the University of Arkansas in 1908. In five seasons there, his teams won 29, lost 13, and tied 1. The 1909 team won all 7 of its games.
Bezdek returned to Oregon in 1913 for six more seasons, during which he had a 30-10-4 record. The 1916 team had a 6-0-1 record and beat Pennsylvania, 14-6, in the Rose Bowl. He also worked as West Coast scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. In the middle of the 1917 season, the last-place Pirates hired him as manager.
He guided them to fourth place finishes in 1918 and 1919, then left both the Pirates and Oregon to become head football coach and athletic director at Penn State University. He coached there from 1918 through 1929, winning 65 games while losing 30 and tying 11, including a 29-game undefeated streak from 1919 into 1922. His 1920 and 1921 teams were both undefeated, though each had two ties, and the 1922 team lost, 14-3, to Southern California in the Rose Bowl.
Bezdek remained as athletic director until 1937, when the NFL's Cleveland Rams hired him. He had a 1-10 record that season and was fired after the Rams lost their first three games in 1938. His overall college record was 124-54-16, and he won 166 games while losing 187 as Pittsburgh's manager.
A hard driving coach whose players looked forward to games because they were much easier than his practices, Bezdek pioneered in the use of a passing attack from the spread formation, and he's also credited with inventing the single wing's spinner play.