The University of Akron Athletics
Hall of Fame
Sefton, Fred S.
Fred S. Sefton
- Induction:
- 1975
INAUGURAL CLASS
1919-54
Head coach– Baseball, Basketball, Football, Track
Director of Athletics
A 1914 graduate of Colgate University, where he lettered three times in three different sports (football, basketball, baseball), and earned All-America honorable mention at end, Fred Sefton was selected over 49 other candidates for the Akron coaching job in 1915.
Thus began a 39-year tenure in which he coached football, basketball, track, and baseball and served as athletics and physical education director.
Sefton’s basketball teams compiled 103 wins against only 42 losses. Akron won Ohio Conference championships in 1919 and 1920.
To augment his income those early years, Sefton played under an assumed name (Fisher) at $135 a game for the professional Canton Bulldogs. A 190-pound end he played with Jim Thorpe, Pete Calac, Doc Spears, and Ralph “Fats” Waldsmith, a Hilltop grad, at Canton. Told by graduate manager Charles Bulger that the Bulldogs’ Fisher was a twin for Akron’s Sefton, Dr. Kolbe called his young coach and, as the story goes, told him “You’re playing good enough to play under your own name.” Sefton did exactly that. He appeared under that name in the starting lineup of the Bulldog team that won the world championship in 1916.
Sefton retired in 1954.
1919-54
Head coach– Baseball, Basketball, Football, Track
Director of Athletics
A 1914 graduate of Colgate University, where he lettered three times in three different sports (football, basketball, baseball), and earned All-America honorable mention at end, Fred Sefton was selected over 49 other candidates for the Akron coaching job in 1915.
Thus began a 39-year tenure in which he coached football, basketball, track, and baseball and served as athletics and physical education director.
Sefton’s basketball teams compiled 103 wins against only 42 losses. Akron won Ohio Conference championships in 1919 and 1920.
To augment his income those early years, Sefton played under an assumed name (Fisher) at $135 a game for the professional Canton Bulldogs. A 190-pound end he played with Jim Thorpe, Pete Calac, Doc Spears, and Ralph “Fats” Waldsmith, a Hilltop grad, at Canton. Told by graduate manager Charles Bulger that the Bulldogs’ Fisher was a twin for Akron’s Sefton, Dr. Kolbe called his young coach and, as the story goes, told him “You’re playing good enough to play under your own name.” Sefton did exactly that. He appeared under that name in the starting lineup of the Bulldog team that won the world championship in 1916.
Sefton retired in 1954.
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