Claude "Monk" Simons, Jr.
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame
Football, 1930-34
Isidore Newman High School/Tulane University/Sugar Bowl
Inducted: 1974
Claude “Monk” Simons was a legendary football player for Tulane University in the 1930s. A New Orleans native and a graduate of the Isidore Newman School (the future alma mater of Peyton and Eli Manning, Odell Beckham, and Arch Manning), he starred for the Green Wave as a halfback from 1932-34.
As a senior at Tulane, Simons scored a late-game touchdown on a 45-yard punt return to lift the Wave to a thrilling 13-12 victory over LSU in the final regular season game to wrap up a share of the SEC conference title and a bid to the inaugural Sugar Bowl. After falling behind 14-0 to Pop Warner’s Temple team in the Sugar Bowl, Simons scored on an 85-yard kick return lateral to jump start the Greenies, who would go on to a 20-14 victory. Simons led Tulane in rushing, passing and scoring in 1934 and was selected as a third-team All-American by the Associated Press.
After graduation, he coached the football team at Transylvania University from 1935-37. He would return to Tulane and served as the Green Wave baseball coach (1938-41, 1943-49), basketball coach (1938-42) and football coach (1942-45).The Green Wave won the SEC baseball championship in 1948.
In 1956, he was elected to the New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association, which became the Sugar Bowl Committee. He served as the organization’s President in 1959 and 1960 and was also a long-time chair of the Sugar Bowl’s basketball tournament committee.
Simons, who was born on January 16, 1914, died on January 5, 1975 at the age of 60. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963 and is also a member of the Louisiana and Tulane Sports Halls of Fame.
