Harold Sebring

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Harold L. Sebring

| image = Harold Sebring.jpg

| image_size = 200

| alt =

| caption =

| office = Justice of the
Florida Supreme Court

| term_start = 1943

| term_end = 1955

| predecessor = James B. Whitfield

| successor = B. Campbell Thornal

| office1 = Judge at the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial

| term_start1 = 1946

| term_end1 = 1947

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1898|3|9|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Olathe, Kansas, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|7|26|1898|3|9}}

| death_place = St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.

| religion =

| profession = Coach, Attorney

| party = Democratic

}}

Harold Leon Sebring (March 9, 1898 – July 26, 1968), nicknamed Tom Sebring, was a Florida Supreme Court justice, and an American judge at one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials of German war criminals after World War II. Sebring was a native of Kansas and an alumnus of Kansas State Agricultural College. While Sebring attended law school at the University of Florida, he also served as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team that represented the university.

Early life

Sebring was born in Olathe, Kansas in 1898,"Harold L. Sebring (Cockrell '28)," [http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Harold+Sebring+born#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbs=bks:1&q=Harold+L.+Sebring+was+appointed+Dean+...+Kansas+on+March+9%2C+1898.&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=cc7216a82c53364 The Brief: Phi Delta Phi Quarterly], vol., 51 p. 154 (1955). the son of John Thomas Sebring and Anna Lee Hayden Sebring.Bruce R. Jacob, "Remembering a Great Dean: Harold L. 'Tom' Sebring," Stetson Law Review, vol. 30, p. 2 (Summer 2000) (Lexis). He graduated from Gardner High School in Gardner, Kansas in 1916, along with is brother, Leonard Sebring.

World War I

Sebring spent 22 months overseas and thirteen months in combat during World War I, and was twice decorated by the U.S. Army with the Silver Star for exceptional bravery under enemy fire, and also received the Croix de Guerre and Corde de Fourragere from the French government.Norm Carlson, "[http://web.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=5884 Norm Carlson Looks Back . . . Tom Sebring] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711080815/http://web.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=5884 |date=2011-07-11 }}," GatorZone.com (September 2, 2003). Retrieved May 9, 2010. Sebring was honorably discharged from the Army as a sergeant in 1919.Florida Supreme Court, Supreme Court Portrait Gallery, [http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/about/gallery/sebring.shtml Justice Harold Sebring]. Retrieved February 25, 2010.

College

File:Portrait of Kansas State Agricultural College student and Floridas future 46th Supreme Court Justice Harold "Tom" Sebring- Manhattan, Kansas.jpg

After returning to the United States, he studied architecture, engineering and business at Kansas State Agricultural College (now known as Kansas State University) in Manhattan, Kansas, where he also excelled as a member of the Kansas State Aggies football, boxing and track & field teams. Sebring was an All Missouri Valley Conference football selection in 1921 and 1922 and, later, was named to the Kansas State Aggies All-Time Football Team.University of Florida, Levin College of Law, Heritage of Leadership, [http://www.law.ufl.edu/leadership/first-twelve/sebring.shtml Harold "Tom" L. Sebring (1898–1968)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716160107/http://www.law.ufl.edu/leadership/first-twelve/sebring.shtml |date=2011-07-16 }}. Retrieved February 25, 2010. Sebring received a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce from Kansas State in 1923.

Law school student and football coach

While playing football at Kansas State, one of Sebring's coaches was Captain James Van Fleet, a U.S. Army officer who was one of the college's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) instructors.Jacob, Remembering a Great Dean, p. 6 (Lexis). Van Fleet joined the faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in 1921, and also became an assistant coach for the Florida Gators football team. When Van Fleet became the head coach of the Gators in 1923, he asked Sebring to join him in Gainesville as an assistant football coach and the head coach of the Florida Gators track and field and boxing teams.[http://web.gatorzone.com/trackfield/media/2010/ 2010 University of Florida Track & Field Media Guide] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402034717/http://web.gatorzone.com/trackfield/media/2010/ |date=2012-04-02 }}, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 136 (2009). Retrieved April 26, 2011. Sebring accepted the coaching position and also enrolled in the University of Florida College of Law as a student.Jacob, Remembering a Great Dean, p. 7 (Lexis). When the Army transferred Van Fleet to a new posting in the Panama Canal Zone after the 1924 season, he recommended Sebring as his replacement, after serving as Van Fleet's chief scout in 1924."[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SscLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yVQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1831,6638639&dq=coach+james-white&hl=en Sebring Named Florida's 'Varsity Football Coach]," The Evening Independent, p. 14 (January 15, 1925). Retrieved April 23, 2011. Sebring quickly proved himself to be a creative football coach and innovator; his 1925 Gators finished with an 8–2 record,College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records, [http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2103 Harold Leon "Tom" Sebring Records by Year] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029131701/http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2103 |date=2010-10-29 }}. Retrieved February 25, 2010. the best record in school history to that time.[http://web.gatorzone.com/football/media/2012/media_guide.pdf 2012 Florida Football Media Guide] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527130648/http://web.gatorzone.com/football/media/2012/media_guide.pdf |date=2013-05-27 }}, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 108, 115, 116 (2012). Retrieved September 16, 2012. Florida went 7–3 in 1927, Sebring's third and final season, and the team he recruited for 1928 finished 8–1 and led the nation in scoring. Sebring graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1928, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "Honorary Letter Winner"F Club, Hall of Fame, [http://www.gatorfclub.org/hall-of-fame/honorary Honorary Letter Winners]. Retrieved December 19, 2014. and was tapped into Florida Blue Key leadership society.

Lawyer and judge

After receiving his law degree, Sebring practiced law in Miami and Jacksonville, Florida. He was appointed judge for the Eight Judicial Circuit from 1933 to 1943 and served on the Florida Supreme Court from 1943 to 1955. After World War II, President Harry S. Truman appointed Sebring to sit on the bench for the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, along with Walter B. Beals, Johnson T. Crawford, and

Victor C. Swearingen. Sebring did not want to resign from the Florida Supreme Court and he was granted a leave of absence; the other justices appointed a new lower-court judge each month to serve in Sebring's place during his absence. While in Nuremberg in 1946 and 1947, Sebring was a judge on the Doctors' Trial, one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He returned to service on the Florida court, and was later elected chief justice by his colleagues, serving from 1951 to 1953.

Law school dean

On September 1, 1955, Sebring retired from the Florida Supreme Court and was appointed as the dean of Stetson University College of Law, the first dean after the college moved from DeLand to Gulfport, Florida.Jacob, Remembering a Great Dean, p. 31 (Lexis). Sebring was credited with dramatically expanding the student body and faculty, and deepening the quality and diversity of the college's academic courses. Sebring's retirement from Stetson was planned for September 1, 1968, but he died unexpectedly five weeks earlier. In 1976, Stetson named a law school courtroom in his memory;Jacob, Remembering a Great Dean, p. 38 (Lexis). and, in 2004, the college named him as one of the first seventeen members of its hall of fame."[http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2004/10/18/focus3.html Seventeen members inducted into Stetson charter Hall of Fame]," Tampa Bay Business Journal (October 15, 2004). Retrieved May 10, 2010.

Family and death

Sebring was married to Elise Bishop and had one child, son Harold, Jr. Sebring's grandson, Harold, III, leads a Tampa law firm, Sebring Law.[http://www.sebringlaw.net/ Sebring Law Firm]. Sebring died on July 26, 1968, in St. Petersburg, Florida.{{cite news |author= |title=Harold L. Sebring, Former State Chief Justice, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120648495/obituary-for-harold-leon-sebring/ |newspaper=The Tampa Tribune |location=Tampa, Florida |date=July 26, 1968 |page=13A |access-date=March 11, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}

Head coaching record

=Football=

{{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead

| name = Florida Gators

| conf = Southern Conference

| startyear = 1925

| endyear = 1927

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1925

| name = Florida

| overall = 8–2

| conference = 3–2

| confstanding = 8th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking = no

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1926

| name = Florida

| overall = 2–6–2

| conference = 1–4–1

| confstanding = 19th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking = no

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1927

| name = Florida

| overall = 7–3

| conference = 5–1

| confstanding = 6th

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking = no

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal

| name = Florida

| overall = 17–11–2

| confrecord = 9–7–12009 Southern Conference Football Media Guide, [http://www.soconsports.com/fls/4000/socon/files/09fbguide/74-77standings.pdf?SPSID=35576&SPID=1781&DB_OEM_ID=4000 Year-by-Year Standings], pp. 74–77 (2009). Retrieved March 16, 2010.

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record End

| overall = 17–11–2

| bowls = no

| poll = no

| polltype =

| legend = no

}}

References

Bibliography

[https://web.archive.org/web/20130527130648/http://web.gatorzone.com/football/media/2012/media_guide.pdf 2012 Florida Football Media Guide], University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2012).
Carlson, Norm, University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators, Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). {{ISBN|0-7948-2298-3}}.
Golenbock, Peter, Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory, Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). {{ISBN|0-9650782-1-3}}.
Jacob, Bruce R., Remembering A Great Lawyer: Harold L. "Tom" Sebring, Vandeplas Publishing, Lake Mary, Florida (2007). {{ISBN|978-1-60042-016-0}}.
McCarthy, Kevin M., [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Tk-IQepI6cC Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football], Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). {{ISBN|978-0-7385-0559-6}}.
McEwen, Tom, The Gators: A Story of Florida Football, The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama (1974). {{ISBN|0-87397-025-X}}.
Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida, South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986). {{ISBN|0-938637-00-2}}.