Howard Harding Jones was an American football player and coach who served as the head coach at Syracuse University (1908), Yale University, Ohio State University (1910), the University of Iowa (1916–1923), Duke University (1924) and the University of Southern California (1925–1940), compiling a career record of 194–64–21. His 1909 Yale team, 1921 Iowa team, and four of his USC teams won national championships. Jones coached USC in five Rose Bowls, winning all of them. Before coaching, Jones played football at Yale (1905–1907), where he played on three national title-winning teams. He was a member of the inaugural class of inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951; his younger brother, Tad, joined him as a member in 1958.

Newell "Jeff" Cravath was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach the University of Denver from 1929 to 1931, at the University of San Francisco in 1941, and at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1942 to 1950, compiling a career college football record of 74–43–9. In nine seasons under Cravath, the USC Trojans football team compiled a 54–28–8 record, won four Pacific Coast Conference titles, and made four appearances in the Rose Bowl Game. Cravath introduced the T formation to the USC program.