Players

Pete Elliott

Year Inducted: 1983

Category: Players

Schools / Organizations: Bloomington High School
The University of Michigan

Biography: Long before Pete Elliott gained fame as the head football coach at the University of Illinois, he had cut quite a swath in basketball, first at Bloomington High School and then at Michigan. Elliott was a three-year starter at Bloomington High School and in 1944 was named as an all-state player who was selected to play in the North-South All-Star game. Elliott enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and in 1945 was assigned to the V-12 program at the University of Michigan. Elliott lettered in basketball as a member of Wolverine teams in 1945-46, 1946-47, 1947-48 and 1948-49. His second year he served as captain and as a junior was a part of the Big Ten Champions and the Wolverines’ third-place NCAA finishers at Madison Square Garden. Elliott was all-Big 10 as both a junior and senior, Michigan’s most valuable player in 1948 as well as a Helms Foundation all-American player. In 1949, he earned the Big 10’s athletic-scholastic medal.  As a coach, Pete was head coach at Nebraska, California, and Miami in addition to the Illini.  After his coaching days, he became the Executive Director of the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH for nearly 2 decades.  Pete Elliott died on January 4, 2013 at the age of 86.