Overall Kentucky Record: 40 - 14
Years Coached: 1927-28 to 1929-30 (3 seasons)
Date of Birth: September 4, 1901
Date of Death: December 20, 1978
Hometown: Aurora, IL
Alma Mater: Illinois
[Faced Kentucky as an opposing coach.]

Biography: Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame

A native of Aurora, Illinois, John Mauer lost both parents by the age of 13 and was raised by a sister. With the support of a local businessman, Mauer attended the University of Illinois, where his roommate was Harold "Red" Grange.

During his tenure at the University of Illinois, Mauer participated in athletics; in his senior year, he was named Outstanding Athlete and Scholar in the Big Ten Conference.

He was also one of the first college basketball players to use the "one hand" shot.

Following graduation from college, Mauer began a long and distinguished career in coaching. He got his first big opportunity when he was offered the University of Kentucky basketball coaching position in 1927. He preceded Adolph Rupp and compiled a record of 40 wins and 14 losses during his three years coaching the Wildcats.

In the early 1930's, Coach Mauer moved to Miami of Ohio where he coached with Paul Brown and Webs Eubank. Also while at Miami, he coached one of his favorite players, Walter "Smoky" Alston, who went on to fame with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 1938, General Robert Neyland hired Coach Mauer to be head basketball, assistant football, and head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee.

His basketball teams won two SEC Championships, and he has the best won-lost percentage of any modern UT men's coach. Coach Mauer moved to the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1947-51, and then moved to the University of Florida.

With that move, he became the first and only man to be head coach in the same sport at three different SEC schools.

Obituary: "John Mauer dies at 77" Frederick (MD) Post (December 21, 1978)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - John Mauer, a former basketball coach at Tennessee, Kentucky, Army, Florida and Miami of Ohio, died Wednesday at a Knoxville nursing home. He was 77.

Mauer was Tennessee's head basketball coach from 1938-47 and served as an assistant Vols football coach those years, as well as from 1960-63.

He compiled a 127-41 record in his eight years as Tennessee's basketball coach and won two Southeastern Conference championships.

At Kentucky, where he preceded the late Adolph Rupp in the late 1920s, he was credited with developing the bounce pass as a regular part of basketball offense.

In the early 1920s, as a player at the University of Illinois, he was one of the first college players to experiment with the one-hand shot.

He had lived in Knoxville since his retirement and at a nursing home since August 1977. He is survived by his wife Grace and two sons.

Services have been scheduled for Friday.