James E. Ostendarp (February 15, 1923 – December 15, 2005) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played professional football for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1950 to 1951 and the Montreal Alouettes of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union—a forerunner of the Canadian Football League (CFL)—in 1952. Ostendarp was the head football coach at Amherst College for 33 years, from 1959 to 1991, compiling a record of 168–91–5. He also served as president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1982. Early years Ostendarp was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1923. He began playing football at age eight and later recalled his early years playing the game as follows: I grew up in Baltimore and all the kids play football in that city. On a Sunday afternoon there must be 50 kids' games going on there. They're all neighborhood teams. I started playing first for a team that was formed by the kids on the street I lived on. We played against kids from the nearby streets. When I was 10 I played for a club team. I mean we just got together and formed a club and gave it a name. We sold fruit and held raffles to get the money to buy uniforms. Ostendarp later attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, where coaches told him he was too small to play high school football. Refusing to accept their decision, Ostendarp established his ability by playing semi-professional football on Sundays. He made the Polytechnic high school football team as a senior and earned All-State honors. He received a scholarship to the University of Maryland and played one year of football there. With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the U.S. Army and served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He fought in the European Theater of Operations and played football with the 7th Army team. After the war, in 1946, Ostendarp enrolled and participated in football, baseball, basketball, and track at Drexel University. Ostendarp transferred to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1948, where he set the football team's rushing record in 1949 with an average of 6.9 yards per carry. Professional football In July 1950, Osetendarp signed with the New York Giants of the National Football League. He played as a halfback for the Giants during the 1950 and 1951 NFL seasons. The Giants were 19–4–1 in 1950