Hank Cobb (Napoleon's World)

Henry Edgar "Hank" Cobb (December 8, 1916 - May 29, 2013) was an American football coach best known as the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans from 1958 until 1982. In his tenure, Cobb won two national championships (1961 and 1973), never posted a losing season, won eight Lakes Conference Championships (1960, 1961, 1962, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1982), and only lost one bowl game. He is the only man to have an undefeated record at the Rose Bowl, winning the 1961, 1963, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1983 iterations of that game (the 1974 Rose Bowl was also the host of that year's championship game). Cobb had seven players finish in the top three in Bosch voting in his career, and one (quarterback and future championship coach Bill Pullman) won, in 1974. Prior to Michigan State, Cobb was the head coach at Central Michigan (1955-1957) and Catholic University of America (1951-1954).

Cobb retired following the 1982-83 season and moved to a home on Michigan's Mackinac Island. He was close friends with the Romney and Shannon families, important in Michigan Nationalist politics, and endorsed then-Governor Mitt Romney in his 1996 bid for the Presidency. Cobb was honored with a statue at Spartan Stadium in 1986 and the field was renamed Hank Cobb Field at Spartan Stadium in 1996. On May 29, 2013, his family disclosed that Cobb had passed away at the age of 96 at home.