Dennis K. Stanley

Dennis Stanley was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England on Easter Sunday 1906, the youngest of seven children. The Stanley family emigrated to Canada when he was a child, first to Winnipeg, Manitoba, then to Fort William, Ontario. He attended Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida, where he was an all-state end and team captain of the Hillsborough Terriers high school football and basketball teams. The 1923 football team piloted by Speedy Walker was the runner-up for the state title, losing to Lakeland High School and Goof Bowyer. His mother died when he was 17, but he worked nights at The Tampa Tribune office, and managed to graduate from high school in 1924. With the help of a civil engineer, Henry Freeman, for whom he had been working on a surveying crew, Stanley scraped together enough money to go to the University of Florida, where Freeman was an alumnus. Stanley attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida from 1924 to 1929, He was a standout end for the Gators, and played on the opposite side of the line from All-American end Dale Van Sickel. Stanley was also a javelin and discus thrower on the Gators track and field team. ==Academic and coaching career==

Stanley taught and coached in Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Florida public high schools for two years before returning to the University of Florida. In 1931, Van Sickel left for Hollywood and Stanley returned as an instructor and assistant football coach under Bachman. Stanley supplemented his income during the Great Depression by laying bricks. Florida After a downturn in the win–loss records of Bachman's teams in 1931 and 1932, Bachman resigned and Stanley became the Gators' new head coach at the age of 26, selected over the older Nash Higgins. Stanley led an all-Florida-alumni coaching staff from 1933 to 1935, and his three-year turn as the Gators' man-in-charge represented a brief resurgence for Florida football. During the first three years of the new Southeastern Conference (SEC), Stanley posted a 14–13–2 record, including notable victories over the new SEC rival Auburn Tigers, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Sewanee Tigers, as well as the out-of-conference Maryland Terrapins, North Carolina Tar Heels, NC State Wolfpack and South Carolina Gamecocks. After a 3–7 record in 1935, however, Stanley submitted his resignation at the end of the season in the face of alumni discontent, but, in an unusual move, remained a member of the coaching staff when the new head coach, Josh Cody, took over in 1936. The Gators would not have another winning football season until 1952. Stanley also served as the first head coach of the Florida Gators men's tennis team from 1932 to 1940, compiling a 54–12 record, as well as the head coach for the Florida Gators track and field team from 1934 to 1936. As measured by his winning percentage (.818), Stanley remains the winningest tennis coach in Gators history. succeeding another "Dutch"–Carl Voyles as end coach of the "Iron Dukes". Stanley was a part of Wade's successful Blue Devils football teams in 1940 and 1941, Wade's coaching staff also included Herschel Caldwell and Ellis Hagler. When World War II broke up Wade's tenure, Stanley continued to serve as an assistant under Eddie Cameron. The 1944 team beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Return to Florida In 1946, a member of the Florida Board of Control requested that Stanley prepare a plan for the University of Florida's athletic program and a new college of physical education., The plan was approved, and, having been instrumental in advocating the consolidation of the new inter-disciplinary academic program and designing its curriculum, he was appointed as the dean of the new college. Legacy After announcing his resignation as dean in January 1969, The college founded the D.K. Stanley Lecture series in 1986, to recognize Stanley's "many contributions to the professions of physical education, health education and recreation." Stanley was also a well-known author in his field; his publications included the standard textbook Physical Education Activities Handbook for Men and Women. He was a member of Florida Blue Key Showing his lifelong love of football, Stanley served as the NCAA representative on the Gator Bowl organizing committee for twenty-eight years. Stanley died in Gainesville on May 29, 1983; he was 77 years old. He was survived by his wife, June Cowperthwaite Stanley, two children and three stepchildren. ==Head coaching record==