The Early Years

Born on May 14, 1882 in Sutton, Nebraska, John Reinhold Bender played college football, later becoming Head Coach for the Volunteers at the University of Tennessee.

He stayed true to his Midwest roots, attending the University of Nebraska, playing as halfback for the Cornhuskers between 1900 and 1904.

Bender was part of the 1902 and 1903 undefeated teams, captaining his side during the latter year. He was the leading scorer in Nebraska history at the time, however an article by the Lincoln Journal Star in 2005 recounts this may have led to him feeling invincible, at one stage sitting in the stands during a game against Minnesota, only agreeing to play if he was paid a sizeable amount of money.

Whilst it had started to become normal practice for colleges to compensate their football players, many deemed Bender’s stance as greedy and unreasonable.

Coaching History & Timeline

He completed college and started his coaching career as Head Coach for South Dakota State Normal School in 1905.

After this he moved to Washington State University for two seasons, leading the Cougars to a strong record of 13-1.

Bender had multiple coaching positions, with the longest being his tenure at the University of Tennessee between 1916 and 1920. During his time as a football coach, he also served as Head Coach for several seasons in basketball and baseball. This was at Washington State and the University of Tennessee.

Between 1908 and 1911 he moved again, first taking up the role of Head Coach at Haskell University, and then Saint Louis University. When it came to his reputation as a football coach, Bender was called the “Powerhouse of the West”.

While at Saint Louis, Bender stopped playing minor league baseball which he started in his later years at the University of Nebraska. He chose to focus on obtaining a law degree, which he did, graduating with the qualification of LLM.

Interestingly, at the time a reporter mentioned that Bender’s smile was similar to that of a popular doll at the time, a “Billikens”, which became the nickname for the team at the time.

He had a final two season role as Head Coach at Washington State before a one season term at Kansas State.

In his opening year as head coach for the Volunteers, he went 8-0-1 and couldn’t have asked for a better start. In fact under his leadership the Volunteers went six straight games before dropping a single point, in total only conceding 13 points the whole season. The most important match was probably against the rock solid Commodores from Vanderbilt State University where the University of Tennessee beat them 10-6.

As a result of World War I, the University of Tennessee had no active football team for the 1917 and 1918 seasons, but went 3-3-3 in 1919.

The 1919 season was Bender’s worst, with the Volunteers unable to score any points in their losing games.

In his last year as Head Coach, 1920, he more than redeemed himself leading the Volunteers to a 7-2 record for the season. Out of all the winning games, the Volunteers only conceded seven points, but were unable to score a single point against rival Vanderbilt when they lost 0-20 at home in Waite Field.

Overall he had a successful record at the University of Tennessee, going 18-5-4 during his years there.

Life After Coaching

Bender left Knoxville to College Station where he became a teacher a Texas A&, but missed being a coach. He tried to regain his position as Head Coach for the Volunteers but was unsuccessful.

Bender became a physical education instructor at the University of Houston, where he gave the football team the nickname of the “Cougars” as a tribute to the Washington State Cougars he had previously coached.

He passed away unexpectedly on Jul 24, 1928, at age 46 due to complications from gallstone surgery.