Edward Nicholas Anderson (November 11, 1900 - April 24, 1974) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He served as the head football coach at Columbia College in Dubuque, Iowa, now known as Loras College (1922-1924), DePaul University (1925-1931), the College of the Holy Cross (1933-1938, 1950-1964), and the University of Iowa (1939-1942, 1946-1949), compiling a career college football record of 201-128-15. Anderson was also the head basketball coach at DePaul from 1925 to 1929, tallying a mark of 25-21. Anderson played professional football in the National Football League (NFL) for the Rochester Jeffersons in 1922 and the Chicago Cardinals from 1922 to 1925.

By the time Anderson had returned from the service, Iowa football was again in the cellar of the Big Ten. Before the 1946 season, Anderson was hospitalized for 19 days with a parasite infection. He returned to lead Iowa to four wins in their first five games, which was as many wins as Iowa had during his three-year absence. Still, Iowa slumped to a 5-4 final record, leading two former players to write a scathing editorial about Anderson. The editorial asked, "How long will Dr. Anderson ride on the laurels that Nile Kinnick won for him?"  In 1947, a 2-2-1 start was followed by three straight losses. One day before Iowa's final game at Minnesota, Anderson submitted his resignation at Iowa, citing "considerable loose talk" among Iowa fans as one reason. The Hawkeye football team responded with a powerful effort against Minnesota, defeating the Gophers, 13-7. Fans begged Anderson to reconsider, and the Iowa athletic board denied his resignation, promising him a larger coaching staff and other football improvement s. Anderson decided to stay, saying, "I'm glad we got things straightened out." Anderson used his larger coaching staff to hire Leonard Raffensperger as the head of the freshman team.  After two more average seasons in 1948 and 1949, Anderson was approached again by Holy Cross, which now had a coaching vacancy. Ohio State made a rare concession and offered their football coach faculty tenure, so Anderson made the same request to Iowa athletic director Paul Brechler. Brechler could not promise Anderson anything, so Anderson resigned and took the head coaching position at Holy Cross. He had a 35-33-2 record in eight years at Iowa.

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