Hall of Fame
Glenn Presnell was a valuable member of the Eastern athletics department for 28 years, serving the University as assistant football coach, head football coach, athletics director and men's golf coach during the years 1947-1974.
After a distinguished career as a player at the University of Nebraska where he was a first-team All-American, starting all three of his collegiate playing years from 1925-27 at single-wing halfback/quarterback and middle safety on defense. One of the highlights of his sophomore season at Nebraska included leading the Huskers to a 14-0 victory over an Illinois team that featured the "Galloping Ghost", Red Grange. As one newspaper writer stated, "All the galloping was done by Presnell this day!"Â As a senior for Nebraska, he gained his All-American recognition when he led the nation in total yards gained and played in the East-West Shrine Game.
From 1928-30, he began his professional football career by serving as player-coach for the Ironton Tanks. In 1930, he led the Tanks to upset wins over the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears. The victory over the Giants included a 29-yard punt return that took the ball to the Giants' 27-yard line with just three seconds remaining. On the last play of the game, Presnell eluded Giant defenders and threw a TD pass that tied the game 12-12 with no time remaining. He finished the one-man demolition of the Giants' by kicking the winning extra point in the 13-12 victory. Presnell called this win "the biggest thrill of my career." In the 26-13 win over the Bears, Presnell again got the better of Grange as he raced 88 yards for a touchdown, prompting legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice to pronounce, "Presnell is better than Grange." The Ironton franchise folded after this year and he played the next three seasons for the Portsmouth Spartans. He led the league in total offense in 1933, the inaugural season for the NFL, and set the NFL single season record with 64 points and was chosen to the All-NFL team.
After the 1933 season, the Great Depression claimed another small town team and Detroit bought the Spartans for $7,850. In the first year of existence, Detroit owner Dick Richards called Glenn and his wife, Liz, in to his office and asked them to pick the team's colors. They chose Honolulu blue and silver, colors that have remained the Lions' colors for the past 80 seasons. Also, in his first season with the Lions, Presnell scored the game's only points in a 3-0 win over Green Bay by kicking a league-record 54-yard field goal, a mark that stood as the league's best for 19 years. In 1935, Presnell quarterbacked the Lions to the NFL championship. His nine-year pro career ended the next year as he finished his pro career with more than 2,500 yards rushing and 3,000 yards passing and accounted for 35 touchdowns.
He began his collegiate coaching career in 1937 by serving as an assistant coach at Kansas, before returning to Nebraska as backfield coach from 1938-41. In 1942, he was head coach of Nebraska before serving three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He went back to Nebraska in 1946 as backfield coach before beginning his career at Eastern in 1947 as backfield coach for Maroon head mentor Tom Samuels where he remained for seven years before being named head coach at Eastern in 1954.
His first season as Eastern head coach was his best as the Maroons went 8-1-1 and compiled a perfect 5-0 mark in OVC play to capture the school's first conference football title. That '54 team also was invited to Orlando, Florida, where they played Omaha in the Tangerine Bowl, losing 7-6. In 10 seasons as Eastern head coach, the Maroons collected 42 wins and added the 1962 league title to the '54 OVC crown.
Following his exit from serving as head football coach at Eastern in 1963, Presnell was EKU's Director of Athletics from 1963-71, while still coaching the Colonel men's golf team, a position he held from 1957-74.
