Edwin Mortimer Hopkins

Edwin Mortimer Hopkins (September 16, 1862 – June 13, 1946) was an American university professor and college football coach. He served on the faculty at the University of Kansas from 1891 to 1937, where he was the head of the English department for many years. He was also the head coach for the school's football team for their 1891 season, their first official head coach. Hopkins graduated from Princeton University in 1888 with a bachelor's degree in English and earned a master's degree the following year. While at Princeton he was elected to the "Lit" board in 1888. That same year he won "The Lippincott prize" of $50 for writing the best article on "Social Life at Princeton".

Coaching career

While Hopkins never played football, he was hired to be the first head football coach of the Kansas Jayhawks for the second season of the program's history. For the most part, he was hired because he had recently arrived at the university from back east, where the sport had already been established for several decades and was quickly gaining in popularity, which gave him a fresh thorough understanding of the game.

At the University of Kansas, Hopkins was instrumental in founding several regional and national organizations. He was a founder of the Quill Club, the English Journal, and the Kansas Association of Teachers of English. Later, while living in Lawrence, Kansas, he served as an organist and choir director at three different churches, spending his last 25 years as the organist of the Lawrence Baptist Church.

Hopkins died on June 13, 1946, in Lawrence, Kansas at the age of 83. He was married until his wife's death in 1944. He and his wife had no children. He and his wife were buried in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Metuchen, New Jersey.

Head coaching record