Friedman was hired as the football coach at City College of New York. He remained the coach at City College through the 1941 season, stepping down in 1942 for military service. Friedman's City College teams compiled a composite record of 27–31–4. Military service In the summer of 1942, Friedman enlisted in the United States Navy with the rank of lieutenant. He was named an assistant football coach at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in North Chicago, Illinois. He later served as the deck officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. After being discharged, he went into the automobile sales business. He operated a Jeep dealership in Detroit. Brandeis University In June 1949, Friedman was hired as the athletic director at Brandeis University, a university founded in 1948 at Waltham, Massachusetts. He was also the school's first coach of the Brandeis football team when it began play in 1950. He remained the head football coach at Brandeis through the 1959 season. In 10 years as head coach, Friedman's Brandeis football teams compiled a record of 38–35–4. In 1960, Brandeis discontinued its football program, noting that "the per capita cost of fielding a varsity football team is inordinately high in relation to other varsity and intramural sports." Despite the end of the football program, Friedman remained as the athletic director at Brandeis until April 1963 when he resigned his post. Halls of Fame and other honors When the College Football Hall of Fame was established in 1951, Friedman was part of the inaugural group of 32 players and 21 coaches to be inducted. Friedman also received acclaim for his professional football career. Sports writer Paul Gallico called Friedman "the greatest football player in the world." Wellington Mara, the owner of the New York Giants, said of Friedman, "He was the Johnny Unitas of his day. He was the best of his time." George Halas gave Friedman credit for revolutionizing the game with his passing and wrote an article in 1967 titled "Halas Calls Friedman Pioneer Passer – Rest Came By Design." However, when the Pro Football Hall of Fame was established in 1963, Friedman was overlooked. As years passed, numerous quarterbacks were inducted, including Sammy Baugh (1963), Dutch Clark (1963), Jimmy Conzelman (1964), Paddy Driscoll (1965), Otto Graham (1965), Sid Luckman (1965), Bob Waterfield (1965), Arnie Herber (1966), Bobby Layne (1967), Y.