Frank Earl Hering (April 30, 1874 – July 11, 1943) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, an baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1896 to 1898, compiling a record of 12–6–1. Hering was also the first basketball coach at Notre Dame, coaching one season in 1897–1898, and helmed the school's baseball team for three seasons from 1897 to 1899.
Hering was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania and played quarterback for the Chicago Maroons in 1893 and 1894. His first head coaching job was with the Bucknell Bison in 1895. The next year he arrived at Notre Dame to play quarterback for the football team; but by 1898 he had taken on the additional responsibility of directing the entire athletic department, including coaching the football and baseball teams, and introducing basketball to the university. He earned the title of "Father of Notre Dame Football" for his success in expanding the football program from an intramural activity to a full-fledged intercollegiate sport. Hering officially dedicated the new Notre Dame Stadium in 1930.
Hering is also recognized by the Fraternal Order of Eagles as the "Father of Mother's Day" for his work in promoting the establishment of a national holiday, having given public speeches supporting the idea as early as 1904.
While a member of the Notre Dame faculty in his later years, Hering was known for his outreach programs in South Bend, Indiana, including the establishment of "Hering House"—a civic center for the African-American community.
Famous quotes containing the word frank:
“Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.”
—Anonymous. Late 19th century ballad.
The quatrain refers to the famous case of Lizzie Borden, tried for the murder of her father and stepmother on Aug. 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Though she was found innocent, there were many who contested the verdict, occasioning a prodigious output of articles and books, including, most recently, Frank Spiering’s Lizzie (1985)