George Ottinger “Ott” Romney was born in 1892 but his legacy as an athlete/coach has lasted well into the 21st century. He served as a head coach in football/track/basketball at at Montana State from 1922-1927 and at BYU from 1928-1936. His basketball teams were successful due to a fast break offense and pressure defense and Montana State later named the 1st gymnasium built on campus after him. In a family of famous politicians (his 1st cousin George was governor of Michigan and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is named for Ott’s younger brother) he served as a great example of how to get things done. He passed away exactly 48 years ago ago on May 3, 1973, but HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Ott’s niece Jan Dunbar about his life/legacy.
During World War I he gave up a Rhodes scholarship to join the Army: how important were academics to your family, and how did his military service affect his coaching ability? Rhodes Scholarships were suspended in 1914 due to the war so he could not participate. Academics were always of major importance to the 5 Romney brothers. In those early days students of ability often were invited to skip grades. He was 16 when he graduated from Salt Lake High School, 19 when he graduated from Utah, and then attended Harvard Business School in 1914. As my father Dick used to say with a laugh, “What were we to do with a brother who read the dictionary for fun!?” All 5 brothers graduated from college and 4 of the 5 served in the armed forces in WWI: the youngest brother Floyd was born in 1902 and was too young to serve. Ott was a Lieutenant in Naval Aviation. He later was Chief of Community Services, Department of the Army (Recreation) and also served on the President’s Youth Program. It is obvious that Ott’s military service affected his coaching ability. He had leadership qualities which must have been enhanced by both his experiences in the Navy as well as working with young people. It would seem that his coaching career greatly influenced his later work with recreation on the national level. Their maternal grandfather George Martin Ottinger was credited with establishing the art department of the U. of Deseret (the forerunner of the U. of Utah) and as a painter he is widely touted as the “Father of Utah Art.”
He coached for 6 years at Montana State, where he won at least 80% of his games in each season except 1, then went to BYU and won at least 18 games in each of his 7 seasons there: how was he able to be so successful at Montana State, and why did he decide to go to BYU? Ott had a very extroverted personality, which was enhanced by his sonorous voice and vivid vocabulary. He had natural leadership qualities and was very colorful. In the days when coaches spent much of their time trying to attract good high school athletes to their institutions, he was gifted at this due to his friendly/outgoing persona. I can only conjecture but I suppose he saw a career advantage in the long run by moving to BYU. Many aspirations were changed by the Depression.
His “Golden Bobcats” were 1 of college basketball’s 1st legendary teams and after he moved on to BYU his former players went on to win the 1929 Helms national title led by Cat Thompson (who was 1 of the greatest players of the 1st half of the 20th century): do you think he was happy that his former team won the title, or sad that he did not stick around to lead them to victory? Uncle Ott maintained a close relationship with Montana State and was always interested in the school and his athletes’ careers after he left. It was they who awarded him his honorary doctor’s degree and named the Romney Gym after him.
He also spent 14 years as a football coach at Montana State/BYU and had a record of 66-47-7: which sport did he enjoy more, and how was he able to balance the 2? I could only guess but I would say that he liked basketball best. My father coached basketball/football/track for a number of years at Utah State and it was indeed a balancing act. I supposed it was the same for Uncle Ott at Montana State/BYU. It was football practice in the afternoon and basketball in the evening, or basketball in the afternoon and track in the evening, or vice-versa. Weekday dinners with the family were an unknown quantity!
He served in some national positions, including chairman of the National Recreation Policies Committee and member of President Eisenhower’s Council on Youth Fitness: how did he gain such national respect for physical fitness, and what did it mean to him to contribute in such prominent roles? Ott had a very magnetic personality and was a “public speaker” at many banquets. When he found himself in the neighborhood of the federal government, he found a venue for his speaking/organizing ability and his athletic career lent credence to his resume. I vaguely recall that he taught for a short time at American University in Washington, DC: he was just in the right place at the right time.
He had several athletic brothers, including Dick (All-American basketball player/College Football Hall of Fame coach), Woody (All-American basketball player/owner of the minor league baseball Denver Bears), and Milt (QB for the Chicago Bears/coach of the Texas basketball team): who was the best athlete in the family, and have the athletics genes been passed down to the current generation? He had 4 athletic brothers. However, the “Woody” you mention is not Ott’s brother, but rather WW “Woody” Romney. Elwood “Woody” Romney was a cousin. Ott’s brother Wilford “Woody” Woodruff played football/basketball for Utah. It is difficult to say who was the best. Naturally I am biased because I know the career of my father EL “Dick” Romney more than those of my uncles. My father often said that he grew up in “Romneyville”, a name for our family of cousins in the area of Salt Lake City called “The Avenues”. We had athletic events among the kids all the time. There were the “Big Romneys” and the “Little Romneys”. I think my father may have been the best basketball player and Mitt may have been the best football player. My father’s career as a coach certainly was the longest: 3 decades at Utah State (1919-1949) and then a decade as Athletic Commissioner of the Mountain States Conference (1949-60). The legendary qualities of the family of Romney athletes lives on because all of them were outstanding, gifted, successful, charismatic, and “grassroots”, in the sense of being athletes because they loved it. They were not large men but large enough; smart, crafty, inventive, and they attracted a lot of attention. I would call them “cerebral” athletes/coaches. The 5 brothers were raised to be competitive among themselves and with the world beyond “Romneyville.” Mitt went into the business world and lived far away from Utah but may have been the best athlete of the bunch. I do not think anyone would argue that Dick was the best coach. I do not know enough about the subsequent careers of the “genes’ in the family. The 5 brothers produced only 7 children among them (2 boys/5 girls) and none of us were more than average in athletic ability.
When people look back on his career, how do you think he should be remembered the most? I think Ott became something of an institution, paving his own way in the athletic/recreation fields. If you met him or were around him for long you could see that he was a personality who held center-stage. He had that vocabulary, that charm, that great big voice, and that great big chin. He was not built like the nurtured athletes of today: he just WAS an athlete, and my father was the same. They could run and jump but mostly they could talk: they had credibility and stage presence. How many athletes do you know who had tea with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth while the bombs fell on London? That was a long way from Third Ave. and E St. in Salt Lake City!
