Ray Nagel

Raymond Robert Nagel (May 18, 1927 – January 15, 2015) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator.

He played quarterback for the football team and was a third team all-city selection his senior season in 1944.

Nagel graduated in 1945 and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was a three time letter-winner from 1946 to 1949 as a quarterback and halfback for the Bruins.

Nagel played for head coach Red Sanders and was named all-Pacific Coast Conference and UCLA's Most Improved Player.

He later earned bachelor's, master's, and law degrees from UCLA and was an assistant coach for the Bruins' football team.

Evy, as he was called, had compiled a 52–27–4 (.650) record as Iowa's head coach from 1952 through 1960.

His teams won three Big Ten titles, two Rose Bowls, and finished in the top ten of the final AP Poll five times.

Evashevski was understandably a popular figure with Iowa fans, a fact that would change over Nagel's tenure in Iowa City.

Nagel brought a talented coaching staff to Iowa; his assistants included George Seifert and Ted Lawrence.

Lawrence had been the coach at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, and his son, Larry, was a star quarterback there.

Nagel played one year of professional football at age 26, with the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) as a player and scout in 1953.

In March 1954, he was hired as assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma under head coach Bud Wilkinson.

After a season in Norman, he returned to UCLA as an assistant for three seasons under Sanders.

Utah had won the conference title in 1957 with junior quarterback Lee Grosscup and sophomore safety Larry Wilson, a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Curtice accepted the Stanford job two weeks earlier, but delayed his departure until March to assist Nagel with the transition.

He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.450).

In January 1958, Nagel was named head coach at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, then a member of the Skyline Conference.

Just 30 years old with four young children, he was the youngest major college head coach at the time; he succeeded Jack Curtice, who left after eight seasons for Stanford University.

Nagel's salary in 1958 was $12,000, a twenty percent increase from his previous position.

Nagel led the Utes for eight years, from 1958 through 1965.

In 1962, he turned down the Nebraska job that eventually went to Bob Devaney, the head coach at conference rival Wyoming.

That year Utah joined the new Western Athletic Conference (WAC) as a charter member.

Nagel compiled a 42–39–1 (.510) record at Utah; his 1964 team was led by quarterback Pokey Allen, running back Ron Coleman, and receiver Roy Jefferson.

They defeated West Virginia 32–6 in the Liberty Bowl, played indoors in New Jersey at the Atlantic City convention center, and finished with 9–2 record.

Nagel was hired as the 21st head coach of Iowa football in December 1965.

At age 38, he had just completed a 3–7 season in his eighth year at Utah, which led some to question his hiring.

Some speculated at the time that finding a new coach had been difficult due to the problems which previous head coach Jerry Burns had reportedly experienced with athletic director Forest Evashevski.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported, "At least four coaches either turned down the Hawkeye job or expressed no desire to talk about it."

In five seasons as head coach, Burns' teams won just sixteen games, ending with a 1–9 record and a last place finish in the Big Ten in 1965.

The Hawkeyes were expected to be bad in 1966, and they met expectations.

Iowa went 2–8, with the lowlight being a 56–7 blowout loss at second-ranked Michigan State.

The Hawks yielded 607 total yards to the Spartans, including 268 rushing yards to tailback Clinton Jones, both Big Ten records.

The following season, Iowa won its first game and failed to win another, ending at 1–8–1 in 1967.

Its offense was adequate, led by junior Ed Podolak, but the defense was awful, giving up almost four touchdowns a game.

Nagel had a 3–16–1 (.170) record after two years, and he needed a good season in 1968.

Behind Podolak and some solid sophomore players, including Larry Lawrence and running back Denny Green, Iowa had one of its best seasons in years.

Iowa had one of the most explosive offenses in Big Ten Conference history in 1968.

After coaching, Nagel was the athletic director at Washington State University from 1971 to 1976 and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1976 to 1983.

From 1990 to 1995, he was the executive director of the Hula Bowl, a college football invitational all-star game in Hawaii.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Nagel was raised in Southern California and attended Los Angeles High School during World War II.