Frank Coughlin

Francis Edward Coughlin was an American football player and coach.

Biography

During World War I, Coughlin served in the United States Navy aboard a minesweeper. After the war, he played at the collegiate level at the University of Notre Dame. He was named captain of the [1920 Notre Dame Fighting Irish American football|football team|1920 football squad] after the team's current captain, George Gipp withdrew from the University.

For the 1921 season, Coughlin was named as a player-coach for the Rock Island Independents of the American Professional Football Association, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922.
Coughlin promised to bring to Rock Island a Notre Dame-style offense based upon tough line play and precise, short forward passes. Assisting Coughlin with the Independents was lefthalf Jimmy Conzelman. The team finished the 1921 season with a record of 4–2–1 in the APFA, good for fifty place out of 21 teams in the association.
On October 16, 1921, down 7-0 to the Chicago Cardinals, Coughlin scored two touchdowns to help give the Independents a 14-7 lead in the second quarter. Team manager Walter Flanigan ordered tackle Ed Healey to relieve Coughlin. Once Coughlin was safely on his way toward the sideline, Healey delivered a message to Jimmy Conzelman from Flanigan, it read: "Coughlin was fired! The new coach was Conzelman!" This act marked the first and only time an owner hired a new coach in the middle of a game. Coughlin then spent the rest of the 1921 season playing for the Detroit Tigers and the Green Bay Packers.

In 1923, Coughlin became a prosecutor in St. Joseph County, Indiana. From 1945–1949, he served as the assistant Attorney General of Indiana, under Governors Ralph Gates and Henry Schricker.