The Early Years

Born on May 1, 1885, Israel George (Izzy) Levene was an American collegiate level football player, head coach and later, author.

Levene attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he played football for the Penn Quakers.

He played an important role as an end, and was All-American for both the 1905 and 1906 season. During the 1905 season, Penn went 12-0-1, and Levene was widely credited for helping his team in accomplishing great success for the season. They also finished the second year 7-2-3.

The New York Globe was quoted to have said “Levene has shown himself to be a wonder in getting downfield under kicks, notably in the Harvard and Cornell games. He was not ‘boxed’ all season and invariably split the plays which came his way and nailed the runner”.

His agility and tact was partly due to his stature, being just over 5’7” and weighing approximately 159 pounds. This is further emphasized by the Alumni Register of Pennsylvania applauding him specifically after his performance during the Harvard game when the Quakers won 12-6. They said “To Levene… too much credit cannot be given. The smallest man of either team, he alone did much to stop Harvard’s attack. He was in on every play and bolstered up the supposedly weak left side of the line considerably. Levene was knocked out three times in the first half and on each occasion was barely able to get back to play. At the close of the half Levene fainted on the way to the dressing room and had to be resuscitated on the field”.

The forward pass was legalized in 1906, and he also became one of the best pass-catching ends, with the New York Sun saying that his agility was second to none and that he was “… a cracking good man at receiving the forward pass”.

After such a commendable playing career, it was only natural that he progress to a head coaching position.

Coaching History & Timeline

In 1907 Levene began his tenure as Head Coach for the Volunteers at the University of Tennessee. He had a great first season, leading the Volunteers to a 7-2-1 record, opening the season with a 30-0 win against the Tennessee Military Institute. The first loss was against Georgia Tech University, losing 4-6 at their home ground on October 19.

The best results of the season were against Maryville College and the University of Chattanooga. The Volunteers won these matches going 34-0 and 57-0 respectively.

After a few more wins and one tied match against Kentucky State College, Levene’s team lost their final match 0-5 against the University of Alabama. While not the result they were looking for, the season was strong overall.

The 1908 season was equally successful, with Levene and his team winning their first five matches in a row, only dropping 10 points in total. The first loss was against the infamous Vanderbilt University, with the season ending with a 0-4 loss to the University of Alabama.

Levene’s final year as Head Coach for the Volunteers was a losing one, going 1-6-2. It was his worst year as coach from a results point of view. In their first match the Volunteers tied, but then had six straight losses, followed by another tie against Chattanooga. During these first eight matches, they were unable to score a single point before winning their last game of the season 11-0 against Transylvania University.

He left the University of Tennessee at the end of the 1909 season, and moved on to his alma mater as an ends coach for the Pennsylvania Quakers.

After just one year, he moved on to Wake Forest, serving as Head Coach. He had a losing season here going 3-5-2, and subsequently retired from coaching after the 1922 season at Wake Forest.

Life After Coaching

After retiring from coaching, he became a football official and wrote a book, titled Twenty Modern Football Plays.

He was considerably young when he passed away, at the age of 45, on November 12, 1930.