View source for Clem Crowe

{{Short description|American football and basketball player and coach, college athletics administrator (1903–1983)}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2015}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox college coach
| name = Clem Crowe
| image = Clem Crowe.jpeg
| alt = 
| caption = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1903|10|18}}
| birth_place = [[Lafayette, Indiana]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|4|13|1903|10|18}}
| death_place = [[Rochester, New York]], U.S.
| alma_mater = 
| player_sport1 = Football
| player_years2 = 1923–1925
| player_team2 = [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish football|Notre Dame]]
| player_sport3 = Basketball
| player_years4 = 1923–1926
| player_team4 = [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball|Notre Dame]]
| player_positions = [[End (gridiron football)|End]] (football)<br>[[Forward (basketball)|Forward]] (basketball)
| coach_sport1 = Football
| coach_years2 = 1926–1931
| coach_team2 = [[Saint Vincent Bearcats football|Saint Vincent]]
| coach_years3 = 1932–1935
| coach_team3 = [[Xavier Musketeers football|Xavier]] (line)
| coach_years4 = 1935–1943
| coach_team4 = Xavier
| coach_years5 = 1944
| coach_team5 = [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish football|Notre Dame]] (assistant)
| coach_years6 = 1945
| coach_team6 = [[Iowa Hawkeyes football|Iowa]]
| coach_years7 = 1949
| coach_team7 = [[Buffalo Bills (AAFC)|Buffalo Bills]] (AAFC)
| coach_years8 = 1950
| coach_team8 = [[Baltimore Colts (1947–50)|Baltimore Colts]] (NFL)
| coach_years9 = 1951–1954
| coach_team9 = [[Ottawa Rough Riders]] (CFL)
| coach_years10 = 1956–1958
| coach_team10 = [[BC Lions]] (CFL)
| coach_sport11 = Basketball
| coach_years12 = 1928–1932
| coach_team12 = [[Saint Vincent Bearcats men's basketball|Saint Vincent]]
| coach_years13 = 1933–1943
| coach_team13 = [[Xavier Musketeers men's basketball|Xavier]]
| coach_years14 = 1944–1945
| coach_team14 = [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball|Notre Dame]]
| overall_record = 71–66–5 (college football)<br>152–115 (college basketball)
| bowl_record = 
| tournament_record = 
| championships = 
| awards = 
| coaching_records = 
}}
'''Clem F. Crowe''' (October 18, 1903 – April 13, 1983) was an American [[gridiron football]] and [[basketball]] player and coach. He served as the head football coach at [[Saint Vincent College]] (1926–1931), [[Xavier University]] (1936–1943), and the [[University of Iowa]] (1945), compiling a career [[college football]] record of 71–66–5. Crowe was also the head basketball coach at Saint Vincent College (1928–1932), Xavier (1933–1943), and the [[University of Notre Dame]] (1944–1945), tallying a career [[college basketball]] mark of 152–115. 

He later coached professional football for the [[Buffalo Bills (AAFC)|Buffalo Bills]] and [[Baltimore Colts (1947–50)|Baltimore Colts]] of the [[All-America Football Conference]] (AAFC) and [[National Football League]] (NFL), and the [[Ottawa Rough Riders]] and [[BC Lions]] of the [[Canadian Football League]] (CFL).

==Playing career==
[[File:Clem Crowe.jpg|thumb|418x418px|Clem Crowe as captain of the [[1925 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team]]]]
Crowe played college football and basketball at the [[University of Notre Dame]]. He earned three letters in basketball and was a basketball All-American. He also earned three letters in football under Coach [[Knute Rockne]]. Crowe played football from 1923 to 1925 and was a two-time [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]]. He played end for Notre Dame's "Seven Mule" team and was named Notre Dame's football captain in 1925.

==College coaching career==
After graduation, Crowe took a position as a coach at [[Saint Vincent College]] in [[Latrobe, Pennsylvania]]. There he coached the football team from 1926 to 1931, compiling a record of 23–27–3, and the basketball team from 1928–1932, tallying a 41–31 mark in four seasons.

Crowe left Saint Vincent in 1932 and took a job at [[Xavier University]]. He coached the [[Xavier Musketeers men's basketball|Xavier basketball team]] from 1933 to 1943 and had a 96–79 record in ten seasons. He also coached the [[Xavier Musketeers football|Xavier football team]] from 1935 to 1943 and compiled a 46–32–2 record. In addition, Crowe was a [[baseball]] coach and a [[golf]] coach at Xavier. He was inducted into the Xavier University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.

Crowe left Xavier in 1943 and returned to his alma mater. He was an assistant football coach at Notre Dame in 1944 and the head basketball coach for the 1944–45 season.

In 1945, Crowe was hired on an interim basis as the 17th head football coach at the [[University of Iowa]] while Iowa's regular coach, [[Eddie Anderson (American football coach)|Eddie Anderson]], was serving with the [[Medical Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Medical Corps]] during [[World War II]]. Following Crowe's one season, in which he had a 2–7 record, Anderson returned, and Crowe left the [[Iowa Hawkeyes Football|Iowa football]] program.

==Professional coaching career==
Crowe resurfaced in 1949 as the head coach of the [[Buffalo Bills (AAFC)|Buffalo Bills]] of the [[All-America Football Conference]], going 4–1–1 after succeeding [[Red Dawson]]. When the Buffalo franchise folded, he left to coach the [[Baltimore Colts (1947–50)|Baltimore Colts]], an expansion team in the [[National Football League]] (NFL) in 1950. The team suffered a winless 7 game preseason before posting a 1–11 record in the regular campaign, leading to the termination of that franchise as well.

[[Art Donovan]] had this to say of Crowe, his coach during his 1950 rookie season with the Colts: "This sonofabitch was crazy, and my first training camp immediately became one of the worst experiences of my life. First of all, Crowe must have had 150 players in camp, and all we did was scrimmage. No drills. No chalk talk. No run-throughs of plays. Just hot, humid, bone-breaking, full-pad scrimmages.... For my first couple of days in camp I wasn't even issued pads."<ref>Arthur Donovan Jr. and Bob Drury, ''Fatso: Football When Men Were Really Men.'' New York: William Morrow, 1987; pp. 115–116.</ref>

Crowe then headed north to [[Canada]] and agreed to coach the [[Ottawa Rough Riders]] of the [[Canadian Football League]] in 1951. In his first season in Ottawa, he led the Rough Riders to the [[Grey Cup]]. He later left Ottawa for the [[BC Lions]]. He was a head coach in Vancouver from 1956 to 1958. Crowe died in [[Rochester, New York]], on April 13, 1983, at age 79.<ref>{{cite news |title=Clem Crowe Dead |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uwRGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_dAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3988,4185582 |newspaper=Daily Times |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=April 15, 1983 |access-date=October 5, 2013}}</ref>

==Head coaching record==
===College football===
{{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead
 | name      = [[Saint Vincent Bearcats football|Saint Vincent Bearcats]]
 | conf      = Independent
 | startyear = 1926
 | endyear   = 1931
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1926 college football season|1926]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 3–5
 | conference   =
 | confstanding = 
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1927 college football season|1927]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 1–6–1
 | conference   = 
 | confstanding = 
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship = 
 | year         = [[1928 college football season|1928]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 6–3
 | conference   =
 | confstanding = 
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1929 college football season|1929]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 4–4–1
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1930 college football season|1930]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 4–6
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1931 college football season|1931]]
 | name         = Saint Vincent
 | overall      = 5–3–1
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
 | name       = Saint Vincent
 | overall    = 23–27–3
 | confrecord = 
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead
 | name      = [[Xavier Musketeers football|Xavier Musketeers]]
 | conf      = Independent
 | startyear = 1935
 | endyear   = 1943
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1935 college football season|1935]]
 | name         = [[1935 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 5–1{{#tag:ref|[[Joseph A. Meyer]] resigned after the first three games of the 1935 season. He was replaced by Crowe, who led the team for the final six games. Xavier finished the year with an overall record of 6–3.|group=n|name=1973season}}
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1936 college football season|1936]]
 | name         = [[1936 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 6–4
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1937 college football season|1937]]
 | name         = [[1937 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 4–5–1
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1938 college football season|1938]]
 | name         = [[1938 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 7–2
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     = 
 | bowloutcome  = 
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1939 college football season|1939]]
 | name         = [[1939 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 3–5–1
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1940 college football season|1940]]
 | name         = [[1940 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 7–3
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1941 college football season|1941]]
 | name         = [[1941 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 9–1
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1942 college football season|1942]]
 | name         = [[1942 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 4–5
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1943 college football season|1943]]
 | name         = [[1943 Xavier Musketeers football team|Xavier]]
 | overall      = 1–6
 | conference   =
 | confstanding =
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
 | name       = Xavier
 | overall    = 46–32–2
 | confrecord = 
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead
 | name      = [[Iowa Hawkeyes football|Iowa Hawkeyes]]
 | conf      = [[Big Ten Conference]]
 | startyear = 1945
 | endyear   = single
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Entry
 | championship =
 | year         = [[1945 college football season|1945]]
 | name         = [[1945 Iowa Hawkeyes football team|Iowa]]
 | overall      = 2–7
 | conference   = 1–5
 | confstanding = T–8th
 | bowlname     =
 | bowloutcome  =
 | bcsbowl      =
 | ranking      = no
 | ranking2     = no
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
 | name       = Iowa
 | overall    = 2–7
 | confrecord = 1–5
}}
{{CFB Yearly Record End
 | overall  = 71–66–5
 | bowls    = no
 | poll     = no
 | polltype = 
 | legend   = no
}}

===Professional football===
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Team !! rowspan="2"|Year !! colspan="5"|Regular Season !! colspan="4"|Post Season
|-
!Won !!Lost!!Ties!!Win %!!Finish!!Won!!Lost!!Win %!!Result
|-
![[1949 Buffalo Bills (AAFC) season|BUF]]||1949
|4||1||1||.750||3rd in AAFC|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>'''Lost to [[Cleveland Browns]] in AAFC Divisional Playoffs.'''</Small>
|-
! colspan="2"|BUF Total||4||1||1||.750|| || 0 || 1 || .000 || – 
|-
! colspan="2"|AAFC Total||4||1||1||.750|| || 0 || 1 || .000 || – 
|-
![[1950 Baltimore Colts season|BAL]]||[[1950 NFL season|1950]]
|1||11||0||.083||13th in NFL|| – || – || – || –
|-
! colspan="2"|BAL Total||1||11||0||.083|| || – || – || – || – 
|-
! colspan="2"|NFL Total<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/CrowCl0.htm|title=Clem Crowe Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks - Pro-Football-Reference.com|website=Pro-Football-Reference.com}}</ref>||1||11||0||.083|| || – || – || – || – 
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
![[1951 Ottawa Rough Riders season|OTT]]||[[1951 in Canadian football|1951]]
|7||5||0||.583||1st in IRFU|| 4 || 0 || 1.000 || <Small>'''Won over [[Saskatchewan Roughriders]] in [[39th Grey Cup]].'''</Small>
|-
![[1952 Ottawa Rough Riders season|OTT]]||[[1952 in Canadian football|1952]]
|5||7||0||.417||3rd in IRFU|| – || – || – || –
|-
![[1953 Ottawa Rough Riders season|OTT]]||[[1953 in Canadian football|1953]]
|7||7||0||.500||3rd in IRFU|| – || – || – || –
|-
![[1954 Ottawa Rough Riders season|OTT]]||[[1954 in Canadian football|1954]]
|2||12||0||.143||4th in IRFU|| – || – || – || –
|-
! colspan="2"|OTT Total||21||31||0||.404|| || 4 || 0 || 1.000 || – 
|-
![[1956 BC Lions season|BC]]||[[1956 in Canadian football|1956]]
|6||10||0||.375||4th in W.I.F.U|| – || – || – || –
|-
![[1957 BC Lions season|BC]]||[[1957 in Canadian football|1957]]
|4||11||1||.281||4th in W.I.F.U|| – || – || – || –
|-
![[1958 BC Lions season|BC]]||[[1958 CFL season|1958]]
|0||5||0||.000||5th in W.I.F.U|| – || – || – || –
|-
! colspan="2"|BC Total||10||26||1||.284|| || – || – || – || – 
|-
! colspan="2"|CFL Total||31||57||1||.354|| || 4 || 0 || 1.000 || – 
|-
! colspan="2"|Total||36||69||2||.346|| || 4 || 1 || .800 || – 
|}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Clem Crowe}}

{{Navboxes
|list =
{{Saint Vincent Bearcats football coach navbox}}
{{Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coach navbox}}
{{Xavier Musketeers athletic director navbox}}
{{Xavier Musketeers football coach navbox}}
{{Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball coach navbox}}
{{Iowa Hawkeyes football coach navbox}}
{{Baltimore Colts coach navbox}}
{{Ottawa Rough Riders coach navbox}}
{{BC Lions coach navbox}}
{{1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football navbox}}
{{39th Grey Cup}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowe, Clem}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:American football ends]]
[[Category:American men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Forwards (basketball)]]
[[Category:Baltimore Colts (1947–1950) coaches]]
[[Category:Iowa Hawkeyes football coaches]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Saint Vincent Bearcats football coaches]]
[[Category:Saint Vincent Bearcats men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:Xavier Musketeers athletic directors]]
[[Category:Xavier Musketeers football coaches]]
[[Category:Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:College men's basketball head coaches in the United States]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Lafayette, Indiana]]
[[Category:Coaches of American football from Indiana]]
[[Category:Players of American football from Indiana]]
[[Category:Basketball coaches from Indiana]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Indiana]]