Background
Bernard Bierman was born on March 11, 1894, near Springfield, Minnesota, United States, the son of William August Bierman, a farmer, and Lydia Ruessler.
Bernard Bierman was born on March 11, 1894, near Springfield, Minnesota, United States, the son of William August Bierman, a farmer, and Lydia Ruessler.
Bernard graduated from Litchfield High School in 1912. Later he earned a B. A. degree in 1916 from the University of Minnesota.
Osteomyelitis crippled Bierman as a youngster and kept him from participating in athletics until 1911. In Litchfield High School he captained the football team and competed in basketball and track. During studying at the University of Minnesota Bierman lettered three times each in football and track and field and once in basketball, and won the Western Conference medal for academic and athletic achievement. Under football coach Henry L. Williams, the reserved, well-conditioned halfback captained the 1915 Western Conference championship squad and made several Western Conference teams.
Nicknamed "The Silver Fox of the Northland, " Bierman began his football coaching career in 1916 at Butte High School. Butte outscored opponents 300-6, trouncing Billings, 54-0, in the state championship game.
During World War I, Bierman entered the United States Marine Corps in 1917 as a second lieutenant and was discharged in 1919 as a captain.
From 1919 to 1921 he compiled thirteen wins, seven losses, and three ties as head football coach at the University of Montana. Bierman installed Williams's Minnesota-shift system for his Grizzly players, who averaged under 160 pounds. In 1920 his Montana squad routed Mount St. Charles, 133-0.
Bierman in 1922 entered the investment banking business in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1923, Clark Shaughnessy, a former teammate who was the head football coach at Tulane University, persuaded Bierman to relocate his investment banking business to New Orleans and become his assistant coach. Bierman joined Mississippi A&M University as head football, basketball, and track coach in 1925, compiling an 8-8-1 football record in two seasons there. He developed the buck lateral series, in which the fullback ran with the ball, handed it off, or made jump passes.
From 1927 to 1931, Tulane University employed Bierman as head football coach. The Green Wave finished 36-10-1 under Bierman and won twenty-eight of thirty games from 1929 through 1931, outscoring opponents 880 to 110. Bierman's 1931 squad did not experience defeat until the University of Southern California triumphed over them 21-12, in the 1932 Rose Bowl. Tulane boasted four All-Americans, including end Jerry Dalrymple (1930 - 1931) and halfback Don Zimmerman (1931 - 1932).
Bierman restored the University of Minnesota as a national football power, guiding the Golden Gophers to a 93-34-6 mark as head coach from 1932 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1950. Minnesota had not won a Western Conference title since 1915, Bierman's last season as a player. The Golden Gophers, using a relentless, single-wing attack behind an unbalanced line, outscored opponents 2, 586 to 1, 130 during Bierman's tenure. His players, who averaged 200 pounds, blocked well, enabling Minnesota to concentrate on a running game with speed and power. Bierman stressed physical conditioning, discipline, precise execution of fundamentals, crisp blocking, and hard tackling. Under him, Minnesota enjoyed the greatest decade in its gridiron history. The Golden Gophers won five of eight games in 1932, then did not suffer another defeat until the 1936 Northwestern University game.
Minnesota won twenty-one consecutive games from 1933 to 1936, recorded five undefeated seasons (1933-1935, 1940 - 1941), earned five outright Western Conference titles (1934, 1937-1938, 1940 - 1941), shared a sixth with Ohio State University (1935), and garnered five national championships (1934-1936, 1940 - 1941) under Bierman. During Bierman's first three seasons, only the University of Wisconsin scored more than one touchdown against Minnesota, and during the entire 1932-1941 span only Notre Dame beat the Golden Gophers by as much as two touchdowns. Bierman's 1934 squad, sparked by All-American back Francis ("Pug") Lund, was his best and favorite team and ranks among the greatest all-time college aggregates. Bierman's masterful backfield juggling when Heisman Trophy and All-American halfback Bruce Smith was sidelined with knee injuries.
Bierman served as a colonel in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945 and coached the Navy's Pre-Flight School football team at Iowa State University. Minnesota struggled in football under Bierman from 1945 to 1947 and narrowly missed going to the Rose Bowl following the 1948 and 1949 seasons. Bierman retired after the Golden Gophers plunged to a dismal 1-7-1 mark in 1950 and Minnesota fans hanged him in effigy.
Bierman wrote a popular text, Winning Football (1937), with Frank Mayer. Other coaching assignments included the East team in the Shrine All-Star game at San Francisco and the College All-Stars against the National Football League champions at Soldier Field in Chicago. Bierman was a football commentator for WCCO in Minneapolis in the early 1950's and then retired to southern California. In 1969 he moved into a retirement community at Laguna Hills, California, where he died.
Bernard Bierman was a member of the Episcopalian Church.
Bernard Bierman was president of the American College Football Coaches Association.
Bierman was a shy, reticent, unemotional football genius who did not believe in fiery pep talks.
Bierman married Clara Louise MacKenzie on June 6, 1921; they had two sons.