The winningest football coach in the long history of Muskegon High School, C. Leo Redmond tallied a 156-29-13 gridiron record and six mythical Class A football state championships in his 22 years of Big Red service. The captain and starting center of the undefeated Western State football squad of 1922, he was in later years selected as a member of the school’s honorary 15-man all-time football team.

Following graduation from Western State Normal College (now Western Michigan University), he accepted the Harbor Springs coaching position in 1923, before arriving in Muskegon in 1925.  After J. Francis Jacks had coached Muskegon grid teams to three state championships in five years from 1920 to 1924, his untimely death threatened to bring the winning Big Red dynasty to a close.

With limited experience as a head coach, Leo Redmond was an unknown quantity and a surprise choice to replace Jacks. Redmond quickly proved to be a worthy successor, with a 7-1-2 record in his first season followed by successive state championships in 1926-27-28.  His teams, like those under Coach Jacks, were some of the most respected and feared gridiron opponents in the high school ranks of Michigan.

Tiny’s coaching rivalry with former WMU teammate Okie Johnson of the cross-town Muskegon Heights Tigers became an annual classic in the 1930s and 40s with the state championship often determined by the outcome of the season-ending game. At MHS, he also handled the basketball team, compiling a 179-93 record between 1925 and 1943, including state titles in 1927 and 1937.  Redmond was among the first inductees in the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame and also is in the Western Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame. In 1978, a new gymnasium complex at Muskegon was named in honor of Redmond and his long-time coaching colleague and former WMU teammate, Harry Potter.