George Huff

Who was George Huff?

George A. Huff, Jr. was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. Huff served as the head football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1895 to 1899, compiling a record of 21–16–3. He was also the head baseball coach at Illinois from 1896 to 1919, tallying a mark of 317–97–4, and the athletic director at Illinois from 1901 to 1935. Huff Hall at the University of Illinois in Champaign is named in his honor.

Huff was briefly a manager for the Boston Americans at the start of the 1907 Major League Baseball season following the sudden suicide of Chick Stahl. Cy Young started out as the player/manager, but after six games stepped down in favor of Huff. Huff managed only eight games, finishing with a career 2–6 managerial record, before resigning on May 1, 1907 to return to his old job. Bob Unglaub replaced him. The Americans had a total of four managers in the 1907 season. The team was renamed as the Boston Red Sox the following season.