Sport(s) Football, golf 1934–1937 Hibbing 1933 Minnesota (freshman) | Position(s) Halfback 1930–1932 Minnesota Name Walter Hass | |
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Died September 13, 1987 (aged 76)
Hendersonville, North Carolina | ||
Walter L. "Wally" Hass (October 7, 1911 – September 13, 1987) was an American football coach and athletic director. He served in both capacities at the University of Chicago. Hass was also the athletic director and head football coach at Carleton College, head coach at Hibbing, and freshman team coach at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota.
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College career
He attended the University of Minnesota, where he played football as a halfback. Hass earned three varsity letters from 1930 to 1932 and served as team captain. During his time on the team, he played under three different head coaches: Clarence Spears, Fritz Crisler, and Bernie Bierman. All three were eventually elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Hass graduated from Minnesota in 1934. After graduation, he served as the freshman team coach at his alma mater for one season.
Coaching career
Hass then moved to Hibbing, Minnesota, where he coached Hibbing for four years and amassed a 21–6–1 record. Carleton College, a small liberal arts school in Northfield, Minnesota, then hired Hass as its football coach. He later also served as the school's athletic director from 1941 until 1956. Hass coached the "South" team in the Minnesota High School Football All-Star Game each year from 1952 to 1956.
In February 1956, the University of Chicago hired Hass as the replacement to retiring athletic director T. Nelson Metcalf. In May 1956, the University of Chicago faculty reacted negatively to overtures of renewing sponsorship of football on campus. Chancellor Lawrence Kimpton told Hass, "It is always difficult to interpret a faculty action," and predicted that the sport would soon return. In 1959, Hass defended the "sport" of tiddlywinks by stating that its "considerable hazards" included "split thumbnails, flying winks which threaten players and spectators alike."
In 1963, Hass oversaw the reinstatement of football at Chicago at the club level, and he became its first head coach since a university administration hostile to the sport had discontinued it in 1939. The return of football was not universally embraced by the student body, and in the inaugural season, 200 students protested in the middle of Stagg Field, which delayed the game and resulted in four arrests. Later in the decade, however, 1,100 students petitioned the administration for the promotion of Chicago football to the varsity level. The faculty administration and board of trustees approved the move and the team became a member of the non-scholarship Division III in 1969.
He retired as football coach, golf coach, professor, and the Department of Physical Education chairman in the spring of 1976. Former high school football mentor Bob Lombardi succeeded him as head coach. Hass's final record at Chicago was 11–48–1. While at Chicago, he was credited with rebuilding the athletic department, "which had declined to almost nothing" prior to his arrival.
Hass retired to North Carolina in 1977. He died September 13, 1987 in Hendersonville, North Carolina at the age of 76.