Lynn Wilbur "The Saint" St. John (November 18, 1876 – September 30, 1950) 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. The Union City, Pennsylvania

Union City, Pennsylvania

Union City is a borough in Erie County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Erie. In the twentieth century, there were three large chair factories, planing and grist mills, a powdered milk plant, and several furniture factories. In 1900, 3,104 people lived here, and in 1910, 3,684 people lived here. The...

 native was the head basketball coach at Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

 from 1911 to 1919, and served as the school's second 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...

, a position he held for 33 years. He also served on the NCAA Rules Committee along with James Naismith

James Naismith

The first game of "Basket Ball" was played in December 1891. In a handwritten report, Naismith described the circumstances of the inaugural match; in contrast to modern basketball, the players played nine versus nine, handled a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops,...

 from 1912 to 1937). In 1956, The Ohio State University built a new basketball arena and named it St. John Arena

St. John Arena

St. John Arena is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The arena was named for Lynn St. John, who served as Ohio State's men's basketball coach and athletic director until 1947....

 after him. In 1962, he was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...

as a contributor.

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