1. Jesse Claiborne Neely was an American football player, a baseball and football coach.
27 Facts About Jess Neely
1. 2.
Jess Neely was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971.
3.
Jess Neely was born on January 4,1898, in Smyrna, Tennessee to William Daniel Jess Neely, Sr.
4.
The First Fifty Years: A History of Middle Tennessee State College recounts Jess Neely's days playing for Middle Tennessee State Normal School:.
5.
Jess Neely misjudged the extremely low entrance, and his head received the full impact of the strip of wall above the doorway.
6.
Jess Neely was revived shortly before the kickoff, but he never quite knew where he was, frequently huddling and aligning himself with the enemy.
7.
Jess Neely played football at Vanderbilt University from 1920 to 1922 under head coach Dan McGugin.
8.
Jess Neely was captain and halfback of the undefeated 1922 team, and its best passer.
9.
All three Commodore touchdowns came from passes by Jess Neely to Gink Hendrick.
10.
Jess Neely was one of Vanderbilt's few stars, blocking well and passing Vanderbilt's only touchdown to Hendrick in the end zone.
11.
Early in the game, Vanderbilt mounted a swift offense, with Jess Neely throwing Hendrick a touchdown pass.
12.
Jess Neely helped score one of four second-quarter touchdowns with a 55-yard pass to end Tot McCullough, and had a 25-yard punt return in the second half.
13.
The Wildcats threatened to score late and tie the game, but they turned the ball over on downs at the two-yard line; Jess Neely ran 34 yards, to the 36-yard line.
14.
Jess Neely ran for about 17 yards more through left tackle, putting the ball on the nine-yard line.
15.
Georgia scored during the first half; early in the fourth quarter Jess Neely intercepted a pass, weaving for 25 yards to Georgia's 40-yard line before he was tackled by Jim Reynolds.
16.
Jess Neely was a member of the 1921 SIAA champion Vanderbilt baseball team.
17.
Jess Neely singled as did Kuhn; Neil fanned but Thomas got his third straight hit and both tallied.
18.
Jess Neely beat out his second hit of the inning and Kuhn walked.
19.
The Commodores punted out of the shadow of their goalpost after a goal line stand; Jess Neely tackled Kipke hard on the punt return, causing a fumble which he recovered.
20.
The tie was reportedly preserved when Jess Neely recovered a fumble near the Commodore goal.
21.
Jess Neely was assistant baseball coach at Princeton in the spring of 1928 before going to Alabama.
22.
Jess Neely won the first four bowl games he coached: the 1940 Cotton Bowl, the 1946 Orange Bowl and the 1949 and 1953 Cotton Bowls.
23.
Jess Neely coached the Tigers during what is known as the "Seven Lean Years", and helped start the first booster club.
24.
Jess Neely was hired by Rice in 1940 and led the team to a six-win turnaround.
25.
Weldon Humble starred for the Owls The 1949 team won the Southwest Conference and the Cotton Bowl, and Jess Neely was named the conference's coach of the year.
26.
Jess Neely brought the football program out of a dire financial situation.
27.
Jess Neely convinced Sam Fleming, who was involved at that time in a $30 million campus fundraising project, that he could get the McGugin Center built and called on his friends among those the late Alf Sharpe, to help him.