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Joseph J. Tomlin

Joseph J. Tomlin was born of immigrant parents in 1902 in the coal-mining town of Shenandoah, Pa. After his father died in 1908 his mother moved to Philadelphia, where Joe attended public school and developed a love of all sports, especially football. Joe worked briefly on Wall Street, but was wiped out by the Great Depression. He returned to Philadelphia, where he started the Junior Football League with four teams. By the 1933 season, the league had 16 teams. The next year, Temple University hired Pop Warner to coach its football team, and Joe convinced Pop to attend a clinic. That night, the Junior Football League was renamed the Pop Warner Conference by acclimation of those in attendance. This began a lifelong friendship. Joe oversaw the Pop Warner Conference as it grew into a national entity known as Pop Warner Little Scholars, focusing as much on academics as on football. Joe was actively involved in the program he founded until his death in May 1988. In January 1955, Joe was the first non-collegiate football coach to receive the coveted Amos Alonzo Stagg Award given by the American Football Coaches Association.