J. Orlean Christian was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 coach and college athletics administrator in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He served as the head football coach at the University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut

The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...

 from 1934 to 1949 and as the head baseball coach there from 1936 to 1961. Christian was also the school's athletic director

Athletic director

An athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...

 from 1950 to 1966 and filled in as interim head basketball coach during the 1935–1936 season. He served as the first commissioner of the Yankee Conference

Yankee Conference

The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league...

, from 1966 to 1971. Christian died on October 21, 1979 at the age of 81 in a convalescent home in Willimantic, Connecticut

Willimantic, Connecticut

Willimantic is a census-designated place and former city located in the town of Windham in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was estimated at 15,823 at the 2000 census. It is home to Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as the Windham Textile and History Museum....

. The University of Connecticut's home baseball field, J. O. Christian Field

J. O. Christian Field

J. O. Christian Field is a baseball stadium in Storrs, Connecticut. It is the home field of the University of Connecticut Huskies college baseball teams. The stadium holds 2,000 people. It is named after former UConn baseball coach and athletic director, J. Orlean Christian....

, is named in his honor. Christian's 66 wins as head football coach at Connecticut were the most in program history until Randy Edsall

Randy Edsall

Randy Douglas Edsall is an American college football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Maryland. Edsall was the head coach at the University of Connecticut from 1999 until the 2011 Fiesta Bowl, and oversaw the program's promotion from the NCAA Division I–AA level to...

surpassed him in 2010.

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