William Paul Coughlin (July 12, 1878 – May 7, 1943), was a Major League Baseball third baseman for the Washington Senators (1901–1904) and Detroit Tigers (1904–1908). Coughlin spent his entire adult life (1899–1943) playing and coaching baseball, as a major league player, minor league coach, and spending his last 23 years as the head baseball coach at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania. Playing career Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and nicknamed "Scranton Bill" (also "Rowdy Bill"), Coughlin played nine seasons in the major leagues. Coughlin had a career batting average of .252 with 159 stolen bases and 123 sacrifice hits, including 36 sacrifice hits in 1906 (2nd best in the American League). Coughlin was twice among the AL leaders in home runs during the dead-ball era, with 6 each year in 1901 and 1902. Coughlin began his major league baseball career with Washington's National League club in 1899 but played in only 6 games. Two years later, he joined the newly formed Washington Senators for their inaugural season in the American League. He played with the Senators from 1901 to 1905. Coughlin's best year was 1902, when he had career highs in batting average (.301), on-base percentage (.348), slugging percentage (.414), hits (141), doubles (27), home runs (6), and RBIs (71). Coughlin was also a strong fielder at 3rd base. He led the American League in putouts by a third baseman in 1901 with 232 (only 11 short of Willie Kamm's AL record of 243) and again in 1906 with 188. Over his career, he had 1,269 putouts at third base. His 232 putouts in 1901 is the 8th highest single season total in history by a major league third baseman. Coughlin was purchased by the Tigers on July 31, 1904, for $8,000. From that point through the 1908 season, Coughlin was Detroit's starting third baseman. He was a team leader and was named team captain in the 1907 and 1908 seasons. Coughlin was the captain for the Tigers' first two American League pennant winners in 1907 and 1908. Coughlin hit .258 in the 1907 and 1908 World Series but did not score. The Tigers lost both Series to the Chicago Cubs. Coughlin was a good baserunner. He had 159 stolen bases, including 31 in 1906. He is one of the few MLB players to have stolen 2nd base, 3rd base and home in a single game. He accomplished the feat