Don Faurot

Who was Don Faurot?

Donald Burrows Faurot was an American football and basketball player and coach best known for his eight-decade association with the University of Missouri. He served as the head football coach at Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, now Truman State University, from 1926 to 1934 and at Missouri from 1935 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1956. During World War II, Faurot coached the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks in 1943 and the football team at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in 1944. He was also the head basketball coach at Northeast Missouri State from 1925 to 1934, tallying a mark of 92–74. Faurot lettered in three sports while at Missouri from 1922 to 1924: in football, as a halfback, basketball and baseball.

Faurot is credited with inventing the split-T formation. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1961. The playing surface as Missouri's Memorial Stadium was named Faurot Field in his honor in 1972.