Jesse Hawley (American football)

Jesse Hawley

Hawley from 1912 Hawkeye
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	(1887-03-25)March 25, 1887 Saint Paul, Minnesota
Died	March 21, 1946(1946-03-21) (aged 59) Orlando, Florida
Alma mater	Dartmouth College
Playing career
1907–1908	Dartmouth
Position(s)	Back
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1910–1915	Iowa
1919	Dartmouth (adviser)
1920	Princeton (assistant)
1923–1928	Dartmouth
Head coaching record
Overall	63–28–1
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 National (1925)

Jesse Barnum Hawley (March 25, 1887 – March 21, 1946) was an American football coach, inventor, and president of Hawley Products Company. He served as the head coach at the University of Iowa from 1910 to 1915 and at Dartmouth College from 1923 to 1928, compiling a career college football record of 63–28–1. Hawley was the tenth head coach in Iowa football history and led Dartmouth to a national championship in 1925. In 1935, Hawley invented a tropical shaped, pressed fiber sun helmet that was adopted in 1940 by the United States military. Approximately 250,000 of Hawley's military sun helmets were produced during World War II by Hawley Products Company and the International Hat Company.

Hawley was hired by the University of Iowa as its tenth head football coach in 1910. Iowa had not won the conference title in a decade, and Hawkeye fans were hoping Hawley could turn Iowa's fortunes around. School officials also hired Nelson A. Kellogg in 1910 to be Iowa's athletic director. Supervision of intercollegiate athletics at Iowa had, since 1900, also been the responsibility of the head coach. Hawley, however, could focus solely on coaching the football team.

Hawley's Hawkeyes had a 5–2 record in 1910. The most notable game that season was a loss to Missouri. Before traveling to Columbia for the game, Hawley was warned not to take Archie Alexander, Iowa's talented black tackle, along for the game. Fearing troubles similar to what Frank Holbrook, Iowa's first black football player, encountered in a game against Missouri in 1896, Hawley agreed to leave Alexander behind. When the Iowa team arrived in Columbia, a mob of local townspeople met the team to ensure that Alexander was not with them. In view of the racial incidents as well as the unsportsmanlike treatment Hawkeye players received during the game, Hawley vowed that Iowa would never again play Missouri in football as long as he was the coach. It has been longer than that. The two neighboring state universities did not meet again until the Insight Bowl in 2010.