Henry Lamar

Henry Nicholson Lamar (January 26, 1906 – September 28, 1985) was an American college boxing coach, college football coach, and professional boxing executive. He served as the head football coach at Harvard University in 1943 and 1944. Lamar also served as the Harvard boxing coach and freshman football coach.

Early life Lamar was born in Oxford, Mississippi, and raised in Washington, D.C., by government employee Lucius Lamar and his wife Atala. As a senior, he won the national amateur light heavyweight championship at the Boston Garden in 1925, He made his professional boxing debut in Boston in August 1926. Lamar also won the Pan-American light heavyweight championship.

Coaching career Lamar joined the athletic department at Harvard University in 1931, initially intending "just to help out for a few weeks", but he remained at the school as a boxing and football coach for four decades. Fans and sportswriters called Lamar "the gentleman coach of Harvard boxing". In a surprising selection the following season, head coach Dick Harlow selected Lamar as Crimson's ends coach. The Boston Globe noted Lamar was previously "a very inconspicuous member of the Harvard Athletic Association's organization." During his tenure at the university, he coached the four Kennedy brothers: Joseph, John, Robert, and Edward,

During World War II, Harvard football coach Dick Harlow spent 30 months in the United States Navy, during which time Lamar served as the team's mentor for the 1943 and 1944 seasons. He compiled a 7–3–1 record. In the late 1940s, he coached Harvard's junior varsity football team.

In 1947, Lamar was appointed chairman of the Massachusetts Boxing Commission. In that post, he attempted to reform the sport in the state, including through a review of all licenses and the mandatory screening of fighters for brain damage. Following his retirement, Harvard created the Henry N. Lamar Award, for which a gold pocket watch is presented to "that senior member of the Harvard football squad who, through his dedication to the program and concern for his fellow man, has made a unique contribution to Harvard football."

After a brief illness, he died of cancer in a Marlboro, Massachusetts hospital on September 28, 1985. He was 79 years old.

Head coaching record Football