Thomas Peebles (American football)


Thomas Peebles was the father of American cheerleading and the first American football coach at the University of Minnesota, in 1883. Peebles coached the team in three games in that early season. They lost two and won one.
Peebles was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States when was 13. He graduated from Princeton University in 1882 and move to Minneapolis, Minnesota the following year. There he taught philosophy at the University of Minnesota for five years. He was later president of a construction firm. Peebles died on March 10, 1938, at his home in Minneapolis.

Head coaching record

Career

Peebles was a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, and coaching was something he did on the side. While there, the transition to law as a career, passed the bar and began practicing in Minnesota. He used his knowledge and skills to manage companies in other states, including a phone company, and two agriculture firms: the Goose Lake Valley Irrigation Company in southern Oregon, and the New Mexico-based Arlington Land Company.
In his later years, he founded a building company. The Thomas Peebles and Sons building company put up many homes in Minneapolis as the city expanded. Many of the houses still stand today. Later in life, Peebles lived in a house north of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. Now the street behind his old house is named "Thomas Avenue" and the area is the "Peebles Addition to Minneapolis."