G. "Ott" Romney

George Ottinger “Ott” Romney was a college football, basketball, and track coach. He played football while attending the University of Utah from 1910 to 1912.

He was 16 when he graduated from Salt Lake High School, 19 when he graduated from University of Utah. He attended Harvard Business School in 1914 and had been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. Due to World War I, Rhodes Scholarships were suspended in 1914, so he was unable to further his education with it. He was a Lieutenant in Naval Aviation.

He was the third head football coach at Brigham Young University from 1928 to 1936. He also coached basketball and was the athletic director. In 1932, he went 8-1 and took second in the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Romney also coached at Montana State University, then known as Montana State Agricultural University. He coached football from 1922 to 1927 and basketball from 1922 to 1928. The basketball program built teams that were honored by the Helms Foundation as some of the best of the early 20th Century, The university honored him by naming the first gymnasium built on campus after him. The building still stands and houses offices and labs for the College of Education Health and Human Development. Montana State awarded him an honorary doctorate.

He was appointed to serve as chairman of the National Recreation Policies Committee and was a member of President Eisenhower's Council on Youth Fitness.

Romney was born on December 12, 1892, in Salt Lake City to George Ernst and Hannah Romney. He married Ruth Jill Harding in 1919 and they were the parents of one daughter.

He died on May 3, 1973, in Alexandria, Virginia. He was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.