1. James Moore "Big Jim" Tatum was an American college football and college baseball player and coach.
20 Facts About Jim Tatum
1. 2.
Jim Tatum's career was cut short by his untimely death in 1959.
3.
Jim Tatum was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1984.
4.
Jim Tatum was born in McColl, South Carolina, on July 22,1913.
5.
Jim Tatum attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played college football as a tackle under head coach Carl Snavely.
6.
Jim Tatum was named to the All-Southern Conference team as a senior in 1935.
7.
Jim Tatum played minor league baseball as a catcher for the Kinston Eagles.
8.
The 6 feet, 3 inches and 230 pounds Tatum had the nicknames "Big Jim" and "Sunny Jim".
9.
In September 1935, Jim Tatum participated in training camp with the New York Giants of the National Football League at Blue Hill Country Club.
10.
In 1936, Jim Tatum followed his football coach at North Carolina, Carl Snavely, to Cornell University where he became Snavely's assistant football coach and the head baseball coach for three seasons before returning to North Carolina in 1939.
11.
Jim Tatum enlisted in the United States Navy after one season as the head coach at North Carolina following Raymond Wolf's departure for naval service in 1941.
12.
Jim Tatum was assigned to the Iowa Pre-Flight school where he was an assistant coach for Don Faurot, the Missouri Tigers head coach and the inventor of the Split-T offense.
13.
Jim Tatum used this offensive scheme with great success throughout his later career.
14.
Bud Wilkinson, a fellow assistant coach at the Iowa Pre-Flight School, was one of his assistants at Oklahoma and was promoted to head coach when Jim Tatum left for Maryland.
15.
That season, Jim Tatum was voted AFCA Coach of the Year.
16.
In 1942 and from 1956 to 1958, Jim Tatum served as the head football coach at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina.
17.
Jim Tatum had originally returned to North Carolina to coach the freshmen football team in 1939 after spending time as an assistant at Cornell University.
18.
Jim Tatum left his first tenure as head coach after the 1942 season to enlist in the Navy during World War II.
19.
Jim Tatum died on July 23,1959, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 46.
20.
Himself a pupil of split T innovator Don Faurot, Jim Tatum's coaching tree included the following assistants who later held head coaching positions of their own:.