Charles W. Melick
| Sport(s) | Football, track |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
May 20, 1877 Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Died |
April 15, 1960 (aged 82) Pontiac, Michigan |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1905 | Kansas State (track and basketball) |
| 1907 | Maryland |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 3–6–0 |
Charles Wesley Melick (May 20, 1877 – April 15, 1960) was an American educator and college football and basketball coach. He served as the first head basketball coach for Kansas State in 1905-1906, and was head football coach at the University of Maryland in 1907.
Biography
Melick spent most of his early life in the Midwest, primarily in Nebraska.[1] He attended the University of Nebraska, where he received a bachelor of science degree,[2] and then worked as a dairy husbandry assistant at the Kansas State Agricultural College Agricultural Experiment Station.[3] In 1905, he coached the track and field team at Kansas State. Melick is also credited as the first basketball coach in the Kansas State history, posting a 7-9 record in the 1905-1906 season.[3] While working at Kansas State, Melick was credited with the invention of new drink he called "Kansas Ambrosia", a mixture of ice cream and buttermilk that could be "flavored to suit taste" and "served at all times."[4]
At the age of 29 in 1906, he moved to Maryland for work.[1] He worked at the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station as a professor of dairy husbandry.[5] While he worked at the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, Melick became the head coach for the Maryland Agricultural College (now University of Maryland) football team in 1907.[6] He hired Washington attorney Durant Church as an assistant coach, and Church tutored Curley Byrd in the art of kicking.[6] Byrd also assisted with coaching as both Melick and Church were often busy with their full-time professional jobs.[6]
Melick, a native of the then homogeneous Midwestern United States, was surprised at the state of race relations when he moved to Maryland, where about a quarter of the population was black. He wrote Some Phases of the Negro Question based on his observations in 1908, and in which he criticized racial integration.[1]
Published works
- Dairy Laboratory Guide, 1907.
- Some Phases of the Negro Question, 1908.
Head coaching record
Football
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland Aggies (Independent) (1907) | |||||||||
| 1907 | Maryland | 3–6 | |||||||
| Maryland: | 3–6 | ||||||||
| Total: | 3–6 | ||||||||
References
- 1 2 3 Some Phases of the Negro Question, p. 1, D.H. Deloe, 1908.
- ↑ The Industrialist, Volume 31, p. 194, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1904.
- 1 2 Julius Terrass Willard, History of the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, p. 506, Kansas State College Press, 1940.
- ↑ The Industrialist, Volume 31, p. 478.
- ↑ American Chemical Journal, Volume 40, p. 129, 1908.
- 1 2 3 David Ungrady, Tales from the Maryland Terrapins, p. 15, Sports Publishing LLC, 2003, ISBN 1-58261-688-4.