Upper Iowa University Athletics Hall of Fame
John "Doc" Dorman graduated from Upper Iowa in 1900. During his years as a student at UIU, he played football, basketball and baseball. Upon graduation from UIU, he entered Georgetown University where he received his DDS. While there, he played baseball, receiving offers from several major leagues; but he chose to return to Fayette where he went into his father’s dental office. In the spring of 1907, he began a coaching career at UIU that lasted over 50 years.
While coaching at Upper Iowa, he received many honors, principally because of his extraordinary football coaching career. Those honors were not confined to the limits of his home state, but were nationwide in scope.
He was the first small college coach to receive and achievement award from the Football Writers Association of America. The citation, given in 1955, was awarded to Doc “For contribution to the sport.”
In 1962, he became one of the first three coaches named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football Hall of Fame.
Doc became the first small college coach to be named to the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. This honor was received in 1956.
In 1968 he was elected, posthumously, to the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Sports Hall of Fame. He joined a select company in this group, including Bob Feller, Jay Berwanger, Nile Kinnick, Elmer (Skinny) Layden, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Frank Gotch, and many other Iowa sports luminaries.
The Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association elected Doc to their Hall of Fame for his contribution to the sport.
A plaque from an Iowa Governor, Herschel C. Loveless, recited, “To John (Doc) Dorman, for his years of outstanding service to the State of Iowa and the nation for exemplifying the highest ideals of sportsmanship.”
In 1949, Dorman was ranked 23rd among the nation’s top coaches in baseball. He was also the longest tenured coach at one school during his time at UIU.
At the 1952 Upper Iowa Commencement, his peers at the University gave him an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. On October 12, 1963, the Dorman Memorial Gymnasium was dedicated and named in Doc’s honor. A plaque, with Doc’s accomplishments on it, hangs in the entryway of Dorman Memorial Gymnasium and calls Doc a teacher, homemaker and friend to all athletes.
This award was accepted by Mr. E. A. Billings and is placed in the Dorman Room at UIU.
