Emporia Gazette

Homer W. Hargiss
     Homer W. Hargiss, 91, former student, athlete and coach in Emporia, died Sunday in Lawrence. "Bill" Hargiss was a coach at the College of Emporia from 1911 to 1914, a coach at Emporia State from 1914 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1928. He was football and track coach for 16 years at Kansas University. From 1952 to 1962,  Mr. Hargiss was executive secretary to the State Athletic Commission.
     Graveside services will be held in Emporia at 2 P.M. Wednesday in Maplewood Cemetery. The family has invited friends, former athletes and students to join them for the services.
     "Bill'' Hargiss was born on a farm near Cherokee, Kan., in 1887. He enrolled at Kansas State Normal in 1905, and while a student played football, basketball and baseball and ran on the track team. He was generally considered to have been one of the best fullbacks in Hornet history. He graduated in 1909.
      After graduation, ''Bill" Hargiss began a teaching and coaching career at Marion. He went back to school at Kansas University after one year at Marion, then to Harvard University for a summer. Mr. Hargiss then came back to Emporia to coach at the College of Emporia. He coached from 1914-17 at the Normal where his football teams compiled a 22-9-4 record and championships in 1915 and 1916. He also coached baseball, basketball, track and gymnastics at Emporia.
     The World War years took Mr. Hargiss away from coaching but he returned to his favorite work in 1919, but at Oregon State at Corvallis. One year later he came back to Emporia to resume his coaching career at his alma mater and he remained there until 1928, at which time he went to the University of Kansas. He coached football and track at K.U. until 1932 when he gave up the head coaching job but remained as scout, freshman coach and head track coach until1943 when World War II found him again in the service of his country was recreation director for the armed forces.
     He was married to the former Vera Strickler of Solomon. She died in 1955. Mr. Hargiss is survived by a daughter, Genevieve of Lawrence, with whom he had lived for a number of years, another daughter, Mrs. George Oberheide, and a son, Clark, of California. He had six grandchildren.