Wally Butts
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| Sport(s) | Football |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
February 7, 1905 Milledgeville, Georgia |
| Died | December 17, 1973 (aged 68) Athens, Georgia |
| Playing career | |
| 1925–1929 | Mercer |
| Position(s) | End |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1938 | Georgia (assistant) |
| 1939–1960 | Georgia |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1948–1963 | Georgia |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 140–86–9 |
| Bowls | 5–2–1 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 1 National (1942) 4 SEC (1942, 1946, 1948, 1959) |
|
| Awards | |
| 3x SEC Coach of the Year (1942, 1946, 1959) Florida–Georgia Hall of Fame |
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College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1997 (profile) |
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James Wallace "Wally" Butts, Jr. (February 7, 1905 – December 17, 1973) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of Georgia from 1939 to 1960, compiling a record of 140–86–9. His Georgia Bulldogs football teams won a national championships in 1942 and four Southeastern Conference titles (1942, 1946, 1948, 1959). Butts was also the athletic director at Georgia from 1939 to 1963. He was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1997.
Butts was a 1929 graduate of Mercer University where he played college football under coach Bernie Moore, as well as baseball and basketball. He was an alumnus of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
Butts never failed to turn out an undefeated championship team at the three high schools he coached before arriving at the University of Georgia in 1938. He coached at Madison (Ga.) A&M from 1928–31; Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, 1932–34; and Male High in Louisville, 1935-37. Butts lost only ten games in ten years of high school coaching. Butts came to the University of Georgia as an assistant to Joel Hunt in 1938. Hunt left after a 5–4–1 season to take over at the University of Wyoming and Butts was elevated to the position of head coach, which he held for 22 seasons through 1960.
Butts' assistants in his first year as head coach were Bill Hartman, Howell Hollis, Quinton Lumpkin, Jules V. Sikes, Forrest Towns, and Jennings B. Whitworth. During his tenure as head coach, Georgia won its first consensus national championship in 1942 and claimed another national title in 1946.Ralph Jordan, future head football coach at Auburn University, joined the Georgia coaching staff in October 1946 as an assistant line coach. Butts was a proponent of the passing game in an era of "three yards and a cloud of dust". He developed innovative, intricate pass routes that were studied by other coaches. He was often called "the little round man" as he was five feet, six inches tall and had a squat body.
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