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Jonas H. Ingram

United States Navy Medal of Honor recipient, American football player and coach, college athletics administrator (1886–1952)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ786983
Source-derived summary

Jonas Howard Ingram (October 15, 1887 – September 9, 1952) was an officer in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II. He commanded the United States Atlantic Fleet during World War II and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in 1914 in Veracruz, Mexico.

A noteworthy football player during his collegiate years, Ingram is remembered as the second commissioner of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a professional American football league launched in 1946 and terminated in 1950 with the absorption of three teams into the rival National Football League. Ingram was appointed to the position in 1947 and resigned in 1949.

Early life and sports

Playing career

In his youth, Ingram attended Jeffersonville High School and Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, then was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1903, at the age of 17. He graduated in 1907. During Ingram's time at the academy, he was a member of the school's rowing, track, and football teams, leading the latter team to the Midshipmen's first victory in six years over their bitter rivals from Army by scoring the lone touchdown in the 1906 clash. His athletic exploits helped earn him the academy's prestigious Athletic Sword and induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

Coaching career

As a lieutenant, Ingram was named the 15th head football coach of the United States Naval Academy and he held that position for two seasons, from 1915 until 1916, compiling a record of 9–8–2.

From 1926 through 1930, Ingram was the director of athletics of the Naval Academy. Thereafter he retained a close connection to football by working as a referee at the collegiate and professional level.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jonas H. Ingram” is united States Navy Medal of Honor recipient, American football player and coach, college athletics administrator (1886–1952). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jonas, Ingram and United, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1887, 1952, 1914, 1946—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886-10-15. For this dossier, Jonas, Ingram and United is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “united States Navy Medal of Honor recipient, American football player and coach, college athletics administrator (1886–1952)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q786983. VIAF identifies the subject as 14003591. The Library of Congress control number is n94077160. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1952, 1914 and 1946.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jonas H. Ingram”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jonas H. Ingram primary sources, Jonas H. Ingram archive and Jonas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jonas H. Ingram”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jonas H. Ingram” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.