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John Outland - Coached Football (1904-05)
Although he only served as head football coach at Washburn in 1904 and 1905, John Outland will long be remembered for holding the namesake of the Outland Award, college football’s trophy for the top lineman. He was inducted into the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998-99
Outland went 14-5 in his two years at Washburn. In 1904, he coached the Varsity Blues to a 7-2 record with wins over Kansas State and Missouri. In 1905 he went 7-3 with wins over KSU, Oklahoma and Emporia State. Through the 2006 season his .737 winning percentage leads Washburn’s list of coaches who have coached at least 18 games.
Outland played at Kansas in 1895 and 1896 and then finished his college career at Pennsylvania while earning his medical degree. At Penn he was selected on the Walter Camp All-America team as a tackle in 1897. The next year he was selected as a halfback.
At KU he established the still-popular Kansas Relays in 1923 and served as athletic director.
Outland’s other college coaching experience includes Franklin and Marshall (1900), Kansas (1901) and Haskell (1906).
Outland always said that interior linemen did not receive enough recognition. In 1946 the Football Writers Association initiated the Outland Award to honor college football’s top interior lineman each year.
He was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1974 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
Aside from coaching, Outland practiced medicine and was in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. He was born in Hesper, Kansas, in 1871 and died in 1947.
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