1. Jesse Clair Harper was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator.
10 Facts About Jesse Harper
1. 2.
Jesse Harper was the head football coach at Alma College in Alma, Michigan.
3.
Jesse Harper held that position for the 1906 and 1907 seasons.
4.
Jesse Harper was the 18th head football coach at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and he held that position for four seasons, from 1909 until 1912.
5.
Jesse Harper is most known for his coaching at the University of Notre Dame.
6.
Jesse Harper stepped down as head football coach after the 1917 season and returned to ranching in his home state of Kansas.
7.
Jesse Harper's ranch was not far from where Knute Rockne was killed in a 1931 plane crash.
8.
Jesse Harper accompanied Rockne's body on the train from Kansas back to South Bend, Indiana, for the funeral and burial.
9.
The University of Notre Dame immediately hired Jesse Harper to fill Rockne's role as athletic director, a position in which he remained until 1934, when Elmer Layden became head football coach and athletic director.
10.
Jesse Harper was married and had two sons and one daughter.