| Wins against Kentucky - 1 | Losses against Kentucky - 3 |
Alma Mater: Arkansas [1920]
Date Born: October 27, 1894
Date Died: May 20, 1993
| Date | Matchup | UK Result | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/11/1924 | Georgetown College at Kentucky | W | 39 - 35 | - |
| 1/12/1924 | Kentucky at Georgetown College | W | 32 - 24 | - |
| 2/19/1923 | Georgetown College at Kentucky | L | 21 - 45 | - |
| 1/13/1923 | Kentucky at Georgetown College | W | 24 - 13 | - |
Obituary - Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal (May 23, 1993)
James W. Coleman
Lt. Col. James Weatherby Coleman, 98, died May 20, 1993, at his residence.
A native of Union County, Ark., he was born Oct. 27, 1894, and had been a Reno resident since 1936, coming from Minot, N.D.
Coleman was a U.S. Army colonel and a veteran of World Wars I and II and the Korean War, retiring in 1954. He was an assistant track, football and basketball coach at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1936-37.
A member of Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Sons of the American Revolution and American Heritage, Coleman was also a 50-year member of Strong Lodge 521, Free and Accepted Masons, Union County He was a lieutenant governor of Kiwanis of California, Nevada and Hawaii District.
He was preceded in death by his wife.
Surviving are his son, James W. of Woodland Hills, Calif.; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A funeral is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday at St. John's Presbyterian Church, with burial with full military honors at National Cemetery, Fayetteville, Ark.
Local arrangements are under the direction of Walton Funeral Home, Reno.
A memorial is being established with American Heart Association, 1135 Terminal Way, Suite 105, Reno 89502-2114.
Obituary of Ruth Coleman - Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal (January 29, 1968)
...she did post graduate work in the Mena schools before attending University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
She and Mr. Coleman met at the university, and they were married Dec. 30, 1922 in Mena while Coleman was athletic coach at Georgetown, Ky. She taught art classes in Ft. Smith, Ark. junior high schools. The couple moved to Akron University, Akron, Ohio in 1924 and remained there until 1936 when Coleman was named head track coach and assistant football coach at University of Nevada. The family residence has been maintained in Reno since that time.
Coleman, who had served in World War I, and was a reserve army officer, was called to active duty in 1942. After the end of the war he was assigned as military governor of Shizvoca prefecture in Japan and Mrs. Coleman joined him there in June of 1946. She was advisor to a group of Japanese women studying women in the average middle-class American home. The returned to the United State and were stationed in Chicago until the Korean Conflict, when Coleman was assigned to duty in Korea. He went from there to Tokyo, Japan and was adviser to the Japanese Defense Force while it was being organized. She joined him in Tokyo in 1952 and was active with a Tokyo art group. The couple returned from overseas duty to Ft. Lewis, in June, 1953 and returned to Reno after Coleman's retirement from active service in August, 1954. ....
Biography - Reno Gazette-Journal (February 5, 1936)
Nevada Sports
James Coleman, who accepted the position as head coach of track and assistant football mentor at the University of Nevada this week, has an enviable record in the coaching business which had its start fourteen years ago at Tupelo Military Institute in Tennessee.
Fresh out of college with four years of heavy football behind him, Coleman started work at the small military academy which had an enrollment of much less than five hundred students. Attesting to his ability to do plenty with comparatively nothing, he coached his football teams to two successive state titles in their division in his two years there. His basketball squads also fared well, winning one state title in the two-year period.
Coleman then went to Georgetown College in Kentucky, a small Baptist institution with an enrollment of about three hundred. He started from scratch at Georgetown, and in 1924 his eleven astounded the South with a startling 7 to 6 win over the University of Tennessee. His 1923 basketball team placed second in its conference and in 1924 defeated the University of Kentucky for the state championship.
Track teams at Georgetown also did well under the tutelage of Coleman, taking second place in the Kentucky intercollegiate track and field meet in 1923, and ranking fourth in 1924 in the Southern Intercollegiate track and field meet against fifteen colleges.
The University of Akron in Ohio hadn't won a football game in eleven years until Coleman took over athletics there - and since he left its losses have far outnumbered its victories. Coleman went to Akron in 1925 and his grid team held the perennially strong Fordham University eleven to a 14 to 7 win. Akron defeated Wooster College which that season had scored an upset over Ohio State., the class of the conference. That year Akron also held Ohio Wesleyan to a 17 to 10 victory after Wesleyan had earlier eat Michigan and Syracuse. His track team at Akron came fourth in the Ohio Intercollegiate track and field meet.
Coleman left Akron for new fields and in 1927 entered the state teachers college at Minot, N.D., as director of athletics. His team at Minot ranked high each year in the North Dakota conference.
Tragedy struck at Coleman's team in 1934 in the form of a bus accident which killed the assistant coach, the captain of the squad, and injured twenty-two members of the team, eight of them seriously. The team was en route to Valley City to play the state teachers' college of that city when the accident occurred. As a result Minot was unable to compete its schedule. Up until the time of the accident Coleman's team had won two of its conference games and dropped one.
His appointment at Nevada will become effective August 1 of this year. Nevada's track team this spring will be coached by J.E. Martie, who handled this assignment with efficiency several years ago and who now guides the Wolf Pack basketball squad.
