Clarkson University is one of the few institutions in the country capable of boasting that it employed one of the true pioneers of the game of basketball, Professor Ernest A. Blood. Beginning his professional career as a coach in Nashua, NH, just five years after the invention of the game by Dr. James Naismith, Blood came to the Village of Potsdam as part of a contract with the State of New York to provide instruction for high school students in 1906. It wasn't long before he began teaching the new game to the students of the Potsdam Normal School and Potsdam High School. Over a nine-year run, Blood's team, named Potsdam Normal High, posted a 72-2 record, gaining countless victories over local high school teams as well as some of the best collegiate teams in the New York Region, including rousing victories over the City College of New York (34-8 in Potsdam and 26-21 in NYC), Niagara University (72-21) and McGill University (30-20). With such impressive victories at the high school level, Clarkson quickly employed Blood as its collegiate coach while he simultaneously guided the Potsdam Normal High squad. In the handful of seasons in which he coached at Clarkson, Blood guided the Golden Knights to a mark of 40-5, including an unblemished record of 16-0 in the 1912-13 season that saw the Knights gain national attention with a come-from-behind win over Notre Dame.
"Professor Blood was a master of technique and perfection," said Dr. Luther Olson, a former player and chairman of the Board of Trustees at Clarkson in a 1950s interview. "He taught you every trick known in the game, and a lot that others never knew, but he would not condone anything less than the highest type of sportsmanship."
Blood moved on to a New Jersey high school in 1915 where he gained even more notoriety by producing a 200-2 record in 10 seasons. In all, Blood compiled an unimaginable record of 1,268 wins against only 165 defeats for a .885 winning percentage. Five years after his death in February 1955, Blood earned induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA, in 1960, only the second year of operation for the museum.
