Locally born and bred, J. Audley Pierce coached Tennessee's 1st football team

Mac Lynch doesn’t know how his great-grandfather became a football coach, his name rightfully etched among such Tennessee notables as Robert Neyland, Doug Dickey, Johnny Majors, Phillip Fulmer and current coach Josh Heupel, who will bring his team to Acrisure Stadium on Saturday.

But you could look it up: Joseph Audley Pierce, born in the Gill Hill section of Jefferson Hills and a lawyer, businessman and one of the founding fathers of Youghiogheny Country Club in Elizabeth Township, was Tennessee’s first football coach.

And he had a winning record over his two-year tenure as a one-man coaching staff from 1899-1900: 8-4-1.

After Pierce graduated from Lafayette, he attended law school at Tennessee at the approximate time the school was establishing its football program.

“Somehow, he got roped into being the head football coach,” Lynch said. “I don’t know what qualifications he had to do that, or if it was kind of a volunteer thing. It could have been something as simple as a work/study program.”

Nonetheless, Pierce had ventures other than football on his mind, and after law school he returned to Western Pennsylvania, settled in Dravosburg, discovered oil on his land, raised a family and worked in the utility and banking businesses, living a prosperous life until he died in McKeesport in 1956 at the age of 81.

Pierce family lore indicates that the family tree can be traced as far back as the second sailing of the Mayflower in the 1600s and the Revolutionary War. A relative, James Torrence, commanded a militia group and later served as Captain of the 4th Company, Third Battalion, of Westmoreland County.

But Pierce never again coached football.

“Wikipedia says he ended up in Texas as a high school football coach, but that doesn’t line up with when my grandmother was born,” Lynch said.

Pierce’s most evident connection to sports occurred in 1911 when he joined a group of investors who bought the 107 acres where Youghiogheny Country Club now sits. Under the leadership of Pierce’s group, it grew from a four-hole golf course into the 18-hole, tree-lined venue it is today.

Lynch, whose father, Tim, is Pierce’s grandson, plans to attend the Johnny Majors Classic between Pitt and Tennessee on Saturday. Lynch is a Pitt fan with family ties to the university, so his rooting interest Saturday will be exclusively with the Panthers.

His uncle, Dan Martino, runs the clock for Pitt men’s and women’s basketball teams, and another grandfather, also Dan Martino, spent many years running the clock for the football and basketball teams at Pitt Stadium and Fitzgerald Field House.

Lynch, who grew up in Aspinwall and lives in Highland Park, said the story of J. Audley Pierce is proudly told by many family members.

“I didn’t know about this story until five years ago. It wasn’t until last year that the story got confirmed. Sometimes, family lore gets stretched, but my dad would always mention it.

“Ironically, I met a person who was very involved in the University of Tennessee. And I kind of just threw it out there as a joke. He didn’t believe me. I said, ‘Look it up in your archives.’

“He looked it up on his phone immediately, and his mouth dropped.”

Pierce died before Lynch was born, but Tim Lynch, who played in the same Shady Side Academy backfield with Pitt All-American Paul Martha, was acquainted with former Pitt Provost Rhoten Smith.

“He had dinner with Majors years ago,” Lynch said of his father. “His famous story was questioning who the best triple-threat backfield person was in the history of the game.

“Johnny would name all these other people, and my dad would say, ‘You forgot one major person and that’s you.’

“My dad was a huge Johnny Majors fan.”