Stuart “Stu” K. Holcomb attended Ohio State University where he was a starting halfback and the captain of the 1931 Buckeyes football team. He went on to be the head football coach at the University of Findlay (1932-1935), Muskingum College (1936-1940) and Washington & Jefferson (1941).
Most notably, Holcomb served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1942 to 1943 and Purdue University from 1947 to 1955. At Purdue, he compiled a record of 35-42-4, with a Big Ten Conference co-championship in 1952. He left Purdue to become the athletic director at Northwestern from 1956 to 1966 and later served as the general manager of the Chicago White Sox from 1971-1973.