M.H. “Mel” Taube
Mel Taube won nine letters in football, basketball and baseball at Purdue University, graduating in 1926. From 1926-28, he was freshman coach in football and basketball at his alma mater. In 1928, he moved to Marion, Indiana, High School, where he was athletic director and football and basketball coach.
He was football coach at Massachusetts State from 1931 through 1935, basketball coach from 1933-36 (including an undefeated season in 1933-34) and baseball coach for four seasons. He received an M.S. degree from Indiana in 1933.
Taube came back to Purdue in 1936, and was assistant basketball coach from ’36 though 1942, when he left for service in the U.S. Navy. Discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant, he returned to Purdue as head basketball and baseball coach.
Mel came to Carleton in 1950 as basketball and baseball coach and assistant football coached and stayed until his retirement in 1970, when he was named Professor Emeritus of Physical Education. His basketball teams from 1950 through 1960 won 136 and lost 80, and included several Midwest Conference championships. His teams of the mid-’50s, featuring Laurie Slocum ’55, and Howie Rosenblum ’55 and Little All-American Bob Buis ’54, were among the finest in conference history. Following the untimely death of Warren Beson, he was named football coach in 1960, and despite a dearth of material his teams won 28, lost 42 and tied 3.
At a retirement dinner in Mel’s honor in 1970, Hank Stram, then coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, cited Taube as knowing more about the three sports he coached than any man he had ever met, then corrected himself and added golf.