Charles Bemies
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Football, basketball, baseball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born | March 19, 1867 Northfield, Vermont |
| Died | August 10, 1948 (aged 81) Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1890–1893 | Geneva College |
| 1899–1900 | Michigan Agricultural |
| Basketball | |
| 1892–1894 | Geneva College |
| 1899–1901 | Michigan Agricultural |
| Baseball | |
| 1900–1901 | Michigan Agricultural |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 13–18–1 (football) 5–2 (basketball) 4–10 (baseball) |
Charles Otis Bemies (March 19, 1867 – August 10, 1948) was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach and Presbyterian minister. He became acquainted with James Naismith while studying at Springfield College (then known as the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School) in the late 1880s. While serving as the athletic director at Geneva College, he organized the first college basketball team in 1892. He graduated from the Western Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1897. From 1899 to 1901, he served as the first basketball and second football coach at Michigan Agricultural College (now known as Michigan State University). After retiring from coaching, Bemies served for many years as a Presbyterian minister and evangelist in rural Pennsylvania. He was also active with the YMCA, serving with that organization in Russia in 1918 and in South Dakota in the early 1920s. Bemies lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota in his later years and died there in 1948. He was posthumously inducted into the Beaver County Hall of Fame in 1992.
Bemies was born in Vermont in 1867. His father, James Otis Bemies, was a tinsmith who was born in Maine. His mother, Ellen Medora (Brigham) Bemies, was a native of Vermont. At the time of the 1870 United States Census, Bemies was living in Randolph, Vermont with his parents and an older brother, William H. Bemies (age 5). At the time of the 1880 United States Census, Bemies was living in Springfield, Massachusetts with his parents and two brothers, William H. Bemies (age 16) and James F. Bemies (age 7).
Bemies became involved in the work of the YMCA early in his life. He worked for the YMCA in Burlington, Iowa for two years. In the late 1880s, he attended the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (now known as Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts. While studying at Springfield, Bemies became acquainted with James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, who was a physical education teacher at the school. Some accounts state that Bemies was a protégé of Naismith while at Springfield. One biographical account indicates that Bemies was also a teacher at the YMCA College in Springfield for one year.
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