Wallace Wade

This article is about the American college football coach. For the football stadium at Duke University, see Wallace Wade Stadium.

William Wallace Wade (June 15, 1892–October 7, 1986) was an American college football coach. He was born in Trenton, Tennessee

Playing career

Wade played football at Brown University. One of his teammates at Brown was Fritz Pollard, who went on to become the first African-American coach in the National Football League.

Coaching career

After working as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University, Wade was hired as the head coach at the University of Alabama in 1923. Over the next seven years, Wade's team won three national championships, after winning the Rose Bowl in 1925, 1926, and 1930.

Following his third national championship, Wade shocked the college football world by transferring to Duke University, which had less of a football tradition than Alabama. Though Wade refused to answer questions regarding his decision to leave Alabama for Duke until late in his life he eventually told a sports historian he believed his philosophy regarding sports and athletics fit perfectly with the philosophy of the Duke administration and that he felt being at a private institution would allow him greater freedom from interference.

Wade continued to succeed at Duke, most notably in 1938, when his "Iron Dukes" went unscored upon until reaching the national championship game, where they lost 7-3 to the University of Southern California in Duke's first Rose Bowl appearance. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina. The change in scenery was a result of the Pearl Harbor attacks, which made the event organizers skittish of hosting a game in California. Wade entered military service after the Rose Bowl loss, and the legendary Eddie Cameron filled in for him as head football coach from 1942 to 1945. Wade returned to coach the Blue Devils in 1946, and continued until his retirement in 1950.

In 16 seasons, Wade's Duke teams compiled a record of 110 wins, 36 losses, and 7 ties.

In 1967, Duke's football stadium was renamed Wallace Wade Stadium in his honor. Wade is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He died in Durham, North Carolina at the age of 94.

In 2006, a bronze statue of Wade was erected outside of the University of Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium alongside the statues of Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant, and Gene Stallings, other coaches who led Alabama to national championships.

External links

• College Football Hall of Fame Entry
• Duke University Biography
• Wallace Wade Stadium
• Wallace Wade Profile at Rosebowl Legends
• Frenzy in Atlanta