Frederick A. Huggins (1976) - Hall of Fame - Brown University Athletics

Frederick A. Huggins

Induction:
1976
Class:
1921

Frederick A. Huggins '21
Sport: Football
Year Inducted: 1976

Frederick A. Huggins '21, one of the keenest students of football the college has produced, was a guard on Walter Camp's All-American third team in 1918, a prominent professional player with the Providence Steam Rollers, and the first varsity football coach at Providence College. He was the son of Charlie Huggins, trainer and coach at Brown, who was inducted into the Brown Hall of Fame in 1973. Fred Huggins was a running guard on offense and a quick-hitting lineman with cat-like reactions when playing defense. He was brilliant in Brown's back-to-back victories over Dartmouth (28-0) and Harvard (6-3) in 1918, games witnessed by Walter Camp. Huggins coached at P.C. for four years and played eight years with the Rollers of the National Football League. His Providence College football teams were soundly coached but the team suffered from inferior material and tough schedules. Huggins became coach and athletic director at the Newport Naval Training Station, where his 1928 football team won the President's Cup, symbolic of the U.S. Service championship. In 1930, he was named to the coaching staff at the United States Naval Academy under Coach Bill Ingram. A veteran of World War I, Fred Huggins enlisted in the Air Force in 1942 and was discharged four years later with the rank of Major, the same rank held by his father. His brother was the late Charlie Huggins '19. Fred Huggins died July 15, less than a month after being informed of his election to the Hall of Fame.