Alex Agase

Agase was born in Chicago to an Assyrian father, Goolasis(Charles) Agase (1883–1959), and an Armenian mother, Eslie Darwitt (1892–1971).

Both were born in Persia.

His brother Lou was also involved with football.

He attended Evanston Township High School, but only played on the school's varsity football team in his senior year.

Alexander Arrasi Agase (March 27, 1922 – May 3, 2007) was an American football guard and linebacker who was named an All-American three times in college and played on three Cleveland Browns championship teams before becoming head football coach at Northwestern University and Purdue University.

Agase grew up in Illinois and attended the University of Illinois, where he was a standout as a guard starting in 1941.

After graduating, he attended the University of Illinois and played college football there as a right guard in 1941 and 1942.

He was named an All-American in 1942.

Agase then entered the U.S. Marines during World War II and played a season at Purdue while in training.

In a 1942 game against the University of Minnesota, Agase scored two touchdowns for the Fighting Illini, becoming only the second guard in college football history to accomplish that feat.

The first touchdown came in the second quarter, when Agase stripped the ball from Minnesota's Bill Daley and ran it back 35 yards.

The second was a fourth-quarter fumble recovery in the end zone to give Illinois a 20–13 victory.

In another game against Great Lakes Naval Training Station, a military team, Agase had 22 tackles.

Under coach Ray Eliot, Illinois finished the season with a 6–4 win–loss record.

Agase was named an All-American after the season.

He was again named an All-American in 1943.

Agase entered the U.S. military in 1943 as America's involvement in World War II intensified.

He was sent to Purdue University for training in the U.S. Marines and played on the school's football team along with enlistees from other schools.

Purdue had won just one Big Ten Conference game the previous year, but the influx of trainees including Agase led to a reversal of fortune in 1943.

Coached by Elmer Burnham, the Purdue Boilermakers won all of their games that year and were named Big Ten co-champions.

Agase was again named an All-American.

During the following two years, Agase served on active duty in the war.

He participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where he received a Purple Heart after he was wounded in action.

He rose to the rank of first lieutenant.

Agase had been selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 1944 NFL Draft, but military service delayed his professional career.

After his discharge from the Marines, he came back to Illinois and played a final season in 1946, after which he was named an All-American for a third time.

Agase returned to Illinois in 1946 and rejoined a Fightining Illini team that posted an 8–2 record and was ranked fifth in the nation in the AP Poll at season's end.

Agase began his professional football career with the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1947, but was soon traded to the Chicago Rockets and then the Browns, where he remained until 1952.

Cleveland won two AAFC championships and one National Football League championship while Agase was on the team.

After retiring from football, Agase worked as an assistant coach for the Dallas Texans and, after a brief return to playing for the Baltimore Colts, Iowa State University.

Illinois beat the UCLA Bruins in the 1947 Rose Bowl after the season.

Agase was named an All-American for a third time, and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the most valuable player in the Big Ten.

He was hired as an assistant at Northwestern in 1956 under head coach Ara Parseghian.

Agase remained as an assistant until Parseghian left to coach at Notre Dame in 1963 and he was named the new head coach.

Agase guided the Northwestern Wildcats to a 32–58–1 win-loss-tie record in nine seasons.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963.

He was named coach of the year by the Football Writers Association of America after guiding the team to a 6–4 record in 1970.

Agase left to coach at Purdue in 1972, but none of his teams posted a winning record there, and he was fired in 1977.

He then spent six years as athletic director at Eastern Michigan University before retiring.

Agase died in 2007.