Forrest Twogood Explained

Forrest Twogood
Birth Date:29 April 1907
Birth Place:Kingsley, Iowa, U.S.
Death Place:Glendale, California, U.S.
Player Sport1:Basketball
Player Years2:1926–1929
Player Team2:Iowa
Player Sport3:Baseball
Player Years4:c. 1929
Player Team4:Iowa
Player Years5:1929
Player Team5:Danville Veterans
Player Years6:1930
Player Team6:St. Joseph Saints
Player Years7:1930
Player Team7:Shawnee Robins
Player Years8:1932–1933
Player Team8:Toledo Mud Hens
Player Positions:Pitcher (baseball)
Coach Sport1:Basketball
Coach Years2:1929–1936
Coach Team2:USC (assistant)
Coach Years3:1936–1941
Coach Team3:Idaho
Coach Years4:1941–1942
Coach Team4:San Francisco
Coach Years5:1949–1950
Coach Team5:USC (assistant)
Coach Years6:1950–1966
Coach Team6:USC
Coach Sport7:Baseball
Coach Years8:1937–1941
Coach Team8:Idaho
Admin Years1:1966–1972
Admin Team1:USC (assistant AD)
Overall Record:317–260 (basketball)
34–90 (baseball)
Tournament Record:3–5 (NCAA University Division)
Championships:NCAA Regional—Final Four (1954)
PCC regular season (1954)
AAWU regular season (1961)
Awards:Helms Foundation Hall of Fame
Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Battles:World War II
Unit:Training
Serviceyears:1942–1945

Forrest Floyd "Twogie" Twogood (April 29, 1907 – April 26, 1972) was a minor league baseball player, college basketball and baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He is best known as the head basketball coach at the University of Southern California for 16 seasons, from 1950 to 1966.

Born in Kingsley, Iowa, Twogood was three-sport athlete at Central High School in Sioux City, then played basketball and baseball at the University of Iowa, before being signed in baseball by Branch Rickey's St. Louis Cardinals.[1] A left-handed pitcher, he played four seasons of minor league baseball while spending his winters in Los Angeles as an assistant basketball coach at USC under Sam Barry, his coach at Iowa, from 1929 to 1936.[2] [3]

After arm trouble led to his retirement from baseball in 1934, Twogood was the basketball head coach at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho from 1936 to 1941,[4] (and also the Vandals' baseball coach (1937–41)),[5] and the University of San Francisco for a season

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy, then worked in the private sector and also as supervisor of officials in the Pacific Coast Conference.[3]

Twogood returned to USC as an assistant basketball coach under Barry in 1949,[3] and when Barry died of a heart attack in September 1950, Twogood was promoted to head coach,[6] and served for 16 seasons. In 22 seasons as a head coach, he compiled a record, with two conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances, including the Final Four in 1954. After stepping down from coaching in 1966, Twogood was an assistant athletic director at USC. The auditorium at the university's Heritage Hall is named in his honor;[7] [8] its bronze plaque reads:

Diagnosed with inoperable lymph gland cancer in late 1971, Twogood died in April 1972 at Glendale Memorial Hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, a few days shy of his 65th birthday. He left behind his beloved wife Eleanor, sisters Blanche and Lucille, and several nieces and nephews Dick Evans and David Stockman, US Naval Academy 1951 Col (Ret) USAF and fighter pilot, and wife Lucia, as well as David and Lucia's children Sidne Ann and Bill Stockman, who loved him dearly [9]

Head coaching record

Basketball

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hawkeyes Basketball Media Guide. University of Iowa Athletics . December 2011. 173. November 26, 2013.
  2. News: Forrest Twogood gets coaching job . Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal. . United Press . September 15, 1929 . 17.
  3. News: Forrest Twogood signs with U.S.C. . (Bend) Bulletin. United Press . August 16, 1949 . 7 .
  4. Web site: Basketball. Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook. 1941. 300.
  5. Web site: Baseball, 1941 season. Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook. 1942. 90.
  6. News: Former Idaho cage mentor gets new job . Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho) . Associated Press . October 3, 1950. 8 .
  7. News: Forrest Twogood, Sioux City, 1987 . Des Moines Register . White . Maury . July 10, 2005 . October 13, 2013.
  8. Web site: The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah on July 25, 1941 · Page 21. Newspapers.com.
  9. News: Forrest Twogood dies of cancer . (Oxnard) Press-Courier . Associated Press . April 27, 1972 . 35 .