{{short description|American football coach (1897–1945)}} {{other people}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college coach | name = Harry Long | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|12|28}} | birth_place = Decatur, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|12|8|1897|12|28}} | death_place = Tampa, Florida, U.S. | alma_mater = | player_sport1 = Football | player_years2 = 1916–1918 | player_team2 = Millikin | player_sport3 = Baseball | player_years4 = 1916–1919 | player_team4 = Millikin | player_positions = Halfback<br>Outfielder (baseball) | coach_sport1 = Football | coach_years1 = 1922 | coach_team1 = Langston | coach_years2 = 1923–1927 | coach_team2 = Paul Quinn | coach_years3 = 1928 | coach_team3 = Tennessee State | coach_years4 = 1929–1945 | coach_team4 = Wiley (assistant) | overall_record = | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = 1 SWAC (1924) | awards = | coaching_records = }} '''Harry J.''' "'''Little'''" '''Long''' (December 28, 1897 – December 8, 1945) was an American college football coach and professor of biology. The brother of Fred T. Long, he was born in Decatur, Illinois and graduated from Decatur High School in 1915. He enrolled at the Millikin University in the fall of 1915, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919, having majored in biology and minored in mathematics.<ref>James Millikin University Commencement program June 3, 1919</ref> At Millikin, played football as a halfback for three seasons, lettered in baseball four tomes, and competed in the long jump for the track and field team. After graduating from Millikin in 1919, Long took a job as the physical director of the colored YMCA in Evanston, Illinois.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Harry Long To Evanston "Y" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-and-review/196511850/ |newspaper=Decatur Herald |location=Decatur, Illinois |date=September 7, 1919 |page=10 |access-date=April 28, 2026 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}</ref>
Harry began his coaching career at Prairie View A&M University in 1919, and then coached at Langston University in Oklahoma in 1922 before taking over at Paul Quinn College in 1923 when his brother, Fred, left Paul Quinn for Wiley College. Harry became head football coach at Paul Quinn for the next four seasons (1923–1927). In 1924, Paul Quinn tied Tuskegee, 0–0, and earned a share of the black college football national championship. In 1928, he moved on to Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College—now known as Tennessee State University—in Nashville, Tennessee to serve coach the football team and head the college's biology department.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Harry Long To Coach Tennessee |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-journal-and-guide/196508109/ |newspaper=Journal and Guide |location=Norfolk, Virginia |date=September 8, 1928 |page=5 |access-date=April 28, 2026 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}</ref> He left Tennessee State in 1929 to join his brother Fred's staff at Wiley College and lead the college's biology department.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Harry Long Joins Wiley Grid Staff |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chicago-defender/196510351/ |newspaper=The Chicago Defender |location=Chicago, Illinois |date=July 13, 1929 |page=9, part 1 |access-date=April 28, 2026 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}</ref>
On December 8, 1945, as the Wiley Wildcats were playing Florida A&M in the Orange Blossom Classic in Tampa, Florida for the black college football national championship Long, who was still an assistant coach on his brother's staff, suffered a fatal heart attack on the sidelines during the first quarter of the game and died. The Wildcats still went on to defeat Florida A&M by a score of 32–6 and won the national title for 1945.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Wiley Coach Drops Death In Football Classic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chicago-defender/196509128/ |newspaper=The Chicago Defender |location=Chicago, Illinois |date=December 15, 1945 |pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chicago-defender/196509446/ 5] |access-date=April 28, 2026 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}</ref>
Long completed his Master of Arts degree in biology at Columbia University in New York in 1928 and was working on completing his Doctorate at the University of Michigan before his untimely death in 1945.
==Head coaching record== {{CFB Yearly Record Start |type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subhead | name = Paul Quinn Tigers | conf = Southwestern Athletic Conference | startyear = 1923 | endyear = 1927 }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1923 | name = Paul Quinn | overall = 5–1–1 | conference = 3–1–1 | confstanding = 2nd | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = conference | year = 1924 | name = Paul Quinn | overall = 6–0–3 | conference = 3–0–2 | confstanding = 1st | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1925 | name = Paul Quinn | overall = 4–2–1 | conference = 2–2–1 | confstanding = 4th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1926 | name = Paul Quinn | overall = | conference = 2–2–1 | confstanding = 4th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1927 | name = Paul Quinn | overall = | conference = 3–2 | confstanding = 3rd | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subhead | name = Tennessee State Tigers | conf = Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | startyear = 1928 | endyear = single }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1928 | name = Tennessee State | overall = 2–4 | conference = 1–4 | confstanding = T–9th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal | name = Tennessee State | overall = 2–4 | confrecord = 1–4 }} {{CFB Yearly Record End | overall = | bowls = no | poll = no | polltype = }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Find a Grave}}
{{Langston Lions football coach navbox}} {{Paul Quinn Tigers football coach navbox}} {{Tennessee State Tigers football coach navbox}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Harry}} Category:1897 births Category:1945 deaths Category:American football halfbacks Category:American men long jumpers Category:Baseball outfielders Category:Langston Lions football coaches Category:Millikin Big Blue football players Category:Millikin Big Blue baseball players Category:Millikin Big Blue men's track and field athletes Category:Paul Quinn Tigers football coaches Category:Prairie View A&M Panthers football coaches Category:Tennessee State Tigers football coaches Category:Tennessee State University faculty Category:Wiley Wildcats football coaches Category:Wiley University faculty Category:YMCA leaders Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Players of American football from Decatur, Illinois Category:Baseball players from Decatur, Illinois Category:Coaches of American football from Illinois Category:Track and field athletes from Illinois Category:African-American coaches of American football Category:20th-century African-American academics Category:20th-century American academics Category:20th-century African-American sportsmen Category:20th-century American sportsmen