| Wins against Kentucky - 4 | Losses against Kentucky - 6 |
Alma Mater: Chicago [1915]
Date Born: January 21, 1891
Date Died: October 22, 1939
Overall Record: 170-78 [12 Seasons]
Namesake of: Stegeman Coliseum

Biography - History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed

From the year 1919 when he came to the University as athletic coach until his death eighteen years later perhaps no man had quite as close touch with University of Georgia athletics as Herman James Stegeman. He was intensely interested in all lines of college athletics. At one time he coached the teams in football, baseball, basket ball and track. If any man deserved the title of Father of Track Athletics in the University of Georgia it was Stegeman. For years he served as dean of Men and in that position was invaluable as a wise guide and counselor of students.

Stegeman was of Dutch blood. The writer's paternal ancestors were North Carolina Moravians of two centuries ago. "Stegs", as nearly everybody called him, and I felt close to each other on that account, as well as for numerous other reasons.

He was born in Holland, Michigan, January 21, 1891, the son of John and Joanna Stegeman. In his boyhood days he attended the public schools in New Groningen, Michigan, and the Hope College Preparatory School in Holland, Michigan. He entered the University of Chicago in 1912 and in 1915 was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy with a major in German and a minor in Political Science and History. The next year he received his Master of Arts degree at Beloit College, majoring in German and with a minor in Philosophy.

During his stay in the University of Chicago he had become one of that institutions best athletes, excelling in all lines of physical activities. In football he was a prime favorite with his coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, the grand old man of the football coaching world. He gained inspiration from that great coach and in the years that followed put into his coaching life much of the sound moral uplift that made Stagg so eminently prominent among all the athletic directors of America.

A few years before "Stege's" death, Edwin Camp, of the Atlanta Journal, better known under the nom de plume of "Old Timer," was talking to Stagg and asking his opinion of the Georgia coach. Said Stagg: "Ah, that Stegeman, what a man he is ! You know Stegy - I always called him Stegy - was the only player I ever had who was not in awe of Mr. Stagg. Stegy would sauce the old man. But Stegy was not afraid of anybody or anything. He was no respecter of persons. He loved to joke, and he would say the most amazing things with the straightest face you ever saw. And would laugh at you when your dignity became upset. But when your football team was backed against its goal line, when your basketball five was trailing and the game was nearly over, when your track team was losing and have to have five points, there was Stegy doing things that could not be done.

"He was a great athlete, one of the finest of all times. He did things you wouldn't believe, because they were things it was not reasonable to expect.

"But better than his record as an athlete is his record as a man. I have learned the great things he has done for the University of Georgia, and I have learned of the influence he has exerted in the South and among his students. You should be proud of Mr. Stegeman."

One of the happiest days of his life was that on which he welcomed to Athens to make an address in the University Chapel his old football mentor, the famous Stagg, who, though his hair was snowy white, was still coaching the football carriers out in California.

In college he was universally popular. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and throughout his life was intensely interested int he fraternity life of the student. In the University of Georgia for several years he had general supervision of that field of student life.

Those who are familiar with football records say that he was one of the greatest tackles ever to play on the University of Chicago football team and that in basketball he was an outstanding player, also that he was a star half-mile runner and a member of the Chicago rely team that established records in the Big Ten.

He had finished his work for the Master's degree only a short while before the United States entered World War I. He went into service with the Army YMCA and remained in that service eighteen months. In 1919 he came to the University of Georgia as coach. For twenty years he remained in service in this institution and during that twenty years was an effective builder of the entire athletic department of the University.

He served as football coach until 1922, when he was succeeded by George C. Woodruff. He continued to coach basketball and track until 1931, when he retired as basketball coach. Until 1937 he coached the Georgia track team. If he liked one branch of athletics better than another, that branch was track. Golf was his acknowledged hobby. The 1937 track team, the last the he coached, won the Southeastern championship and one of its members was Forrest (Speck) Towns, who later on in the Olympic games played in Germany became the Olympic high hurdles champion. In 1929 Stegeman was made director of athletics at the University. For several years prior t his death he was a member of the faculty with the rank of associate professor in physical education, having organized in the institution the department of Physical Education for Men.

His reputation in the athletic world was not confined to Georgia. He was regarded as an authority on Southern Sports and contributed many articles to several publications. He was especially interested in intersectional athletic contests and was largely instrumental in arranging for games between the Georgia Bulldogs and Eastern and Western opponents. So thoroughly recognized was his ability in the athletic world that he became a member of the National Rules Committee for Intercollegiate Football and served in that position several years.

Perhaps the greatest influence he exerted was through the office of Dean of Men, which he filled for a number of years. He became the advisor of student, and was one of the best influences in the college community. He had plenty of firmness about him, but along with that went sympathy and understanding. He was adept in smoothing out differences and in pouring oil on troubled waters.

In 1938 he suffered a heart attack while witnessing a football game between Georgia Tech and the University of Florida. He lived a year after that attack, but never regained his health.

On Saturday, October 21, 1939, as the end neared, "Stege" was still interested in football, his mind as clear and alert as ever. In his hospital room the radio had been turned on and he was listening to the account of the Georgia-Kentucky game, in which his son, John, was playing at end. This his last hours were spent in happiness. Before the breaking of the dawn, he had passed on.

"Stege" was a member of the Presbyterian church. He took an active part in all worthy civic movements. He was survived by his wife, who prior to her marriage was Miss Dorothea Washborne, of Holland, Michigan, and by his children, John, Joanna and Marian.

He was buried in Oconee Cemetery after brief services in the old University Chapel, conducted by his pastor, Rev. N.L. Hill. Hundreds of friends, especially those in the world of sports, came to Athens to pay him their last tribute.

The best things about his life was his influence on students.

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