Jan. 19, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - (AP) Former University of Maryland football coach Tom Nugent, the man largely credited with developing the I formation, died of congestive heart failure Thursday, his family said. He was 92.

A member of the College Football Hall of Fame for his innovations, Nugent was also credited with creating the "typewriter" huddle where players stood in two rows rather than a circle while plays were being called. He was a head coach for 17 years, posting an 89-80-3 record before turning to broadcasting and public relations.

Nugent was Maryland's head coach from 1959-65, compiling a 36-34 record in his seven seasons. His best season as a Terp was 1961, a year that saw Maryland finish 7-3 and beat No. 7 Syracuse in the third game of that season.

He created the I-formation at VMI as he coached at the military institute from 1949-52. During his six years at Florida State in the mid-1950s, he also served as the school's athletic director and coached ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso and actor Burt Reynolds.

Nugent led Florida State to a 34-28-1 record and two bowl games during his stay between 1953 and 1958 and coached the school's first game against Florida.

After coaching, Nugent was a sports broadcaster, spending four years in the late 1960s with ABC at WPLG-TV in Miami. Nugent then did public relations work for several years, including a stint at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne in the 1970s.

A captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Nugent served as a fitness trainer for officers heading overseas, and later as a director of entertainment at a base in Missouri.

A native of Lawrence, Mass., Nugent began his coaching career at the high school level in Virginia before accepting his first college job at VMI in 1949.

Nugent's wife of 61 years, Peg, died in 2002. He is survived by five sons, four daughters, 15 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.