Sport(s) | Football, baseball |
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Biographical details | |
Born |
McColl, South Carolina |
July 22, 1913
Died | July 23, 1959 Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
(aged 46)
Playing career | |
Football | |
1933–1935 | North Carolina |
Baseball | |
1934–1936 | North Carolina |
1937 | Tarboro Serpents |
1938–1939 | Snow Hill Billies |
Position(s) |
Tackle (football) Catcher (baseball) |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
Football | |
1936–1938 | Cornell (assistant) |
1939–1941 | North Carolina (assistant) |
1942 | North Carolina |
1943 | Iowa Pre-Flight (assistant) |
1946 | Oklahoma |
1947–1955 | Maryland |
1956–1958 | North Carolina |
Baseball | |
1937–1939 | Cornell |
Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
1948–1956 | Maryland |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 100–35–7 (football) 20–40–1 (baseball) |
Bowls | 4–2 |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
Football 1 National (1953) 1 Big Six (1946) 1 SoCon (1951) 2 ACC (1953, 1955) |
|
Awards | |
Football AFCA Coach of the Year (1953) 2× ACC Coach of the Year (1953, 1955) |
|
College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1984 (profile) |
James M. "Big Jim" Tatum (July 22, 1913 – July 23, 1959) was an American football and baseball player and coach. Tatum served as the head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1942, 1956–1958), the University of Oklahoma (1946), and the University of Maryland, College Park (1947–1955), compiling a career college football record of 100–35–7. His 1953 Maryland team won a national title. As a head coach, he employed the split-T formation with great success, a system he had learned as an assistant under Don Faurot at the Iowa Pre-Flight School during World War II. Tatum was also the head baseball coach at Cornell University from 1937 to 1939, tallying a mark of 20–40–1. Tatum's career was cut short by his untimely death in 1959. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1984.
Tatum was born in McColl, South Carolina on July 22, 1913. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played college football as a tackle under head coach Carl Snavely. Tatum was named to the All-Southern Conference team as a senior in 1935.