• Source: John Pont

      • John Pont (November 13, 1927 – July 1, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from 1956 to 1962, Yale University from 1963 to 1964, Indiana University Bloomington from 1965 to 1972, Northwestern University from 1973 to 1977, and Mount St. Joseph University in Delhi, Ohio, from 1990 to 1992, compiling a career college football head coaching record of 107–141–4.


      Early life


      Pont was born on November 13, 1927, in Canton, Ohio, to Bautista and Suzannah Pont. He graduated from Timken High School in Canton. As an undergraduate at Miami University, Pont was an outstanding halfback, playing for coaches Woody Hayes and Ara Parseghian, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After a serving a tour as a Navy submariner, Pont played professional football in Canada. He and several of his "Cradle of Coaches" compatriots are the subject of the book Fields of Honor, written by Pont's niece, Sally Pont.


      Career




      = Playing

      =
      After playing college football at Miami University, Pont went to Canada and played with Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, where he won the Imperial Oil Trophy as league MVP in 1952.


      = Coaching

      =
      He was the only Indiana University coach to take a team to the Rose Bowl. Later in his career, Pont was recruited to start a football program at Cincinnati's College of Mount St. Joseph. He later served as coach and consultant in creating a semi-professional football league in Japan. He was honored as NCAA Division I-A coach of the year in 1967, the year his Hoosiers appeared in the Rose Bowl. He was a member of the Cradle of Coaches and the Miami and Indiana Athletic Halls of Fame as well as Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame and the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
      He went 6-4 in 1968. It would be the last winning season he had as a college coach, with Pont having just two winning seasons at Indiana. Despite rumors that he would stay at Indiana, Pont signed a five-year contract to succeed Alex Agase at Northwestern University on December 23, 1972. He announced on November 14, 1977, that he would remain as athletic director while relinquishing his head coaching duties effective at the end of the season. Rick Venturi succeeded him seventeen days later on December 1. Both Pont and Venturi were dismissed on November 18, 1980, after the Wildcats went 1–31–1 within a three-year span culminating with a 0–11 campaign and a twenty-game losing streak. Additionally, all but one of the black players on the football team had protested against the unequal treatment of African-American student athletes within the program.


      Death



      Pont died at his home in Oxford, Ohio, on July 1, 2008.


      Head coaching record




      = College

      =


      References




      External links


      John Pont at Find a Grave
      Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - John Pont, Miami University Libraries
      John Pont Collection, Cradle of Coaches Archive, Miami University Libraries

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