James Coombs

James Parker Coombs (June 6, 1869 – February 22, 1935), also known as Big Jim or Daddy Jim, was an American football player and coach and singer. He played football at Brown and coached at Maine before becoming a professional opera singer in Boston and New York City. He then performed as a member of Roxy's Gang on NBC's Blue Network.

Early life Coombs was born in Augusta, Maine. His family moved to Sedgwick, Maine when he was two years old, then to Portland, Maine when he was seventeen. He took vocal lessons in Portland and performed in public for the first time in 1894 in an amateur production of H.M.S. Pinafore. He prepared for college at the Bridgton Academy and Westbrook Seminary and took part in both music and athletics at these schools.

Singing Coombs became a professional singer in 1900 after a lauded performance in a Portland production of Alessandro Stradella. He was hired by Henry Wilson Savage and performed in a number of his operas. He played the King and Herald in Lohengrin, Amonasro in Aida, and Plunkett in Martha. In 1904, he was one of a few Americans chosen to perform in an English-language production of Parsifal in Boston.

On April 12, 1905, Coombs made his New York City debut at the New York Hippodrome in Thompson & Dundy's A Yankee Circus on Mars. The play, directed by R. H. Burnside, had a cast of 1,200. Coombs was the lead Bass at the Hippodrome until it was acquired by the Shuberts in 1908. After a foray into motion pictures, Coombs returned to the Hippodrome and served as their first bass soloist for four more years. He retired from the group in 1934. He died of a heart attack on February 22, 1935, at his home in Great Kills, Staten Island. He was survived by his wife and four children. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Head coaching record College