Charles Bemies

Charles Bemies

Biographical details
Born	(1867-03-19)March 19, 1867 Northfield, Vermont, U.S.
Died	August 10, 1948(1948-08-10) (aged 81) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1890–1893	Geneva
1899–1900	Michigan Agricultural
Basketball
1892–1894	Geneva
1899–1901	Michigan Agricultural
Baseball
1900–1901	Michigan Agricultural
Head coaching record
Overall	13–18–1 (football) 5–2 (basketball) 4–10 (baseball)

Charles Otis Bemies (March 19, 1867 – August 10, 1948) was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach and Presbyterian minister. He became acquainted with James Naismith while studying at Springfield College (then known as the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School) in the late 1880s. While serving as the athletic director at Geneva College, he organized the first college basketball team in 1892. He graduated from the Western Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1897. From 1899 to 1901, he served as the first basketball and second football coach at Michigan Agricultural College (now known as Michigan State University). After retiring from coaching, Bemies served for many years as a Presbyterian minister and evangelist in rural Pennsylvania. He was also active with YMCA, serving with that organization in Russia in 1918 and in South Dakota in the early 1920s. Bemies lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in his later years and died there in 1948. He was posthumously inducted into the Beaver County Hall of Fame in 1992.