{{Short description|American football player, coach, and singer (1869–1935)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college coach | name = Jim Coombs | image = James P Coombs.jpg | alt = | caption = Coombs pictured in ''The Prism 1901'', Maine yearbook | birth_date = {{Birth date|1869|6|6}} | birth_place = Augusta, Maine, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1935|2|22|1869|6|6}} | death_place = Staten Island, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = Brown University (1897)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CvISAAAAIAAJ&q=%22JP+Coombs%22 |title=The ATO palm - Alpha Tau Omega - Google Books |year=1899 |via=Google Books|access-date=July 31, 2012}}</ref> | player_years1 = 1893–1896 | player_team1 = Brown | player_positions = Center | coach_years1 = 1897 | coach_team1 = Worcester Academy | coach_years2 = 1898 | coach_team2 = Maine | coach_years3 = 1899 | coach_team3 = Bowdoin (line) | coach_years4 = 1908 | coach_team4 = New York Hippodrome | overall_record = 1–4 (college) | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = | awards = | coaching_records = }} '''James Parker Coombs'''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1936&dat=18981015&id=rbAgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=omkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2637,4387843 |title=The Sun - Google News Archive |access-date=July 31, 2012}}</ref> (June 6, 1869 – February 22, 1935), also known as '''Big Jim''' or '''Daddy Jim''' was an American football player and coach and singer. He played football at Brown and coached at Maine before becoming a professional opera singer in Boston and New York City. He then performed as a member of Roxy's Gang on NBC's Blue Network.
==Early life== Coombs was born in Augusta, Maine. His family moved to Sedgwick, Maine when he was two years old, then to Portland, Maine when he was seventeen. He took vocal lessons in Portland and performed in public for the first time in 1894 in an amateur production of ''H.M.S. Pinafore''. He prepared for college at the Bridgton Academy and Westbrook Seminary and took part in both music and athletics at these schools.<ref name="Lewiston Evening Journal" />
==Football== Coombs enrolled in Brown University in 1893 and was a member of the Brown varsity football team for four years. He competed in hammer throw and shot put for the Brown track team. He studied vocal music and was director of the university's chapel choir.<ref name="Lewiston Evening Journal" />
In 1897, Coombs coached Worcester Academy football team. That winter, he worked as a vocal coach in Portland. In 1898, he enlisted in the United States Navy as a bugler. He was honorably discharged with the rank of chief master-at-arms upon the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. That fall, he coached the Maine football team and, when the season end, began instructing the school's glee club.<ref name="Lewiston Evening Journal" /> The following season, he was the line coach at Bowdoin College, but returned to Maine later in the year to train the glee club.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Maine Gridiron. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MggAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA10 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=Lewiston Evening Journal |date=October 11, 1899}}</ref>
==Singing== Coombs became a professional singer in 1900 after a lauded performance in a Portland production of ''Alessandro Stradella''. He was hired by Henry Wilson Savage and performed in a number of his operas. He played the King and Herald in ''Lohengrin'', Amonasro in ''Aida'', and Plunkett in ''Martha''. In 1904, he was one of a few Americans chosen to perform in an English-language production of ''Parsifal'' in Boston.<ref name="Lewiston Evening Journal">{{cite news |title=Splendid Success For A Maine Singer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNcgAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=Lewiston Evening Journal |date=October 28, 1904}}</ref>
On April 12, 1905, Coombs made his New York City debut at the New York Hippodrome in Thompson & Dundy's ''A Yankee Circus on Mars''. The play, directed by R. H. Burnside, had a cast of 1,200. Coombs was the lead Bass at the Hippodrome until it was acquired by the Shuberts in 1908.<ref name="Obituary" /> During his final year at the theater, he coached the Hippodrome's football team, which was made up of theater performers and played on a grass-mat covered stage.<ref>{{cite news |title=Football at Midnight |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OydfAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=The News-Democrat |date=November 23, 1908}}</ref> After a foray into motion pictures, Coombs returned to the Hippodrome and served as their first bass soloist for four more years.<ref name="Roxy's Gang" /> He spent two years at the Radio City Music Hall and was a soloist in the inaugural performance at the Capitol Theatre.<ref name="Obituary" />
In 1924, Coombs joined Roxy's Gang, a cabaret group led by Samuel Roxy Rothafel. Going by the name "Daddy Jim Coombs", he performed on the group's radio program.<ref name="Roxy's Gang">{{cite news |title=Radio Programs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L01HAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA10 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=Meriden Record |date=June 6, 1927}}</ref> He retired from the group in 1934. He died of a heart attack on February 22, 1935, at his home in Great Kills, Staten Island. He was survived by his wife and four children. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.<ref name="Obituary">{{cite news |title=James P. Coombs, Opera Basso, Dies |work=The New York Times |date=February 24, 1935}}</ref>
==Head coaching record== ===College=== {{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subhead | name = Maine | conf = Maine Intercollegiate Athletic Association | startyear = 1898 | endyear = single }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | championship = | year = 1898 | name = Maine | overall = 1–4 | conference = 0–4 | confstanding = | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = no | ranking2 = no }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal | name = Maine | overall = 1–4 | confrecord = 0–4 }} {{CFB Yearly Record End | overall = 1–4 | bowls = no | poll = no | polltype = | legend = no }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coombs, James P.}} Category:1869 births Category:1935 deaths Category:19th-century players of American football Category:20th-century American male opera singers Category:American cabaret singers Category:American football centers Category:American radio singers Category:Bridgton Academy alumni Category:Bowdoin Polar Bears football coaches Category:Brown Bears football players Category:Coaches of American football from Maine Category:High school football coaches in Massachusetts Category:Maine Black Bears football coaches Category:People from Great Kills, Staten Island Category:People from Sedgwick, Maine Category:Players of American football from Maine Category:Sportspeople from Augusta, Maine Category:United States Navy personnel of the Spanish–American War