John J. Corbett 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...

 player and coach of multiple sports in the United States

United States

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

. He played football for Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 from 1890 to 1893 and was selected as one of the two halfbacks on the 1890 College Football All-America Team

1890 College Football All-America Team

The 1890 College Football All-America team was the second College Football All-America Team. The team was selected by Casper Whitney and published in This Week's Sports.-Overview:...

. He graduated from Harvard in 1894 and received a master's degree from Ohio University

Ohio University

Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...

 in 1910. Corbett went on to coach football in Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming. In 1914, he moved to Wyoming where he coached all of the athletic teams, including football, 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...

, 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...

, and track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

, for the University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...

 from 1914 to 1924. He remained the university's director of physical education until his retirement in September 1939. He became known as Wyoming's "Grand Old Man of Athletics." In October 1931, the University of Wyoming's athletic ground was named Corbett Field in his honor. In 1947, Corbett died of an apparent heart attack at his home in Laramie, Wyoming

Laramie, Wyoming

Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....

; he was 77 years old.

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