Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/F. W. Sweeney

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Consensus is the improvements by Cbl62 show the article should not be deleted. Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 18:00, 28 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

F. W. Sweeney

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No evidence could be found that Sweeney meets WP:BIO or WP:NSPORTS. Fram (talk) 14:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Sportspeople-related deletion discussions. Fram (talk) 14:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of American football-related deletion discussions. Fram (talk) 14:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Nebraska-related deletion discussions. Fram (talk) 14:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Delete I have to admit I am less than convinced that even the current head coach at Doane College would be default notable. I really think we should stop assuming any college football coach is default notable and require all to pass GNG. That is clearly failed here. Maybe the head coaches of Division I-A colleges and universities of the NCAA, but I think even then we should require adequate sourcing before we create the article.John Pack Lambert (talk) 23:38, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. The AfD assumes that Doane was an insignificant football program. While that may or may not be true today, Sweeney was Doane's head coach in 1895 when Doane competed at the highest level of the sport. Sweeney's 1895 Doane team played three of its five games against opponents that are now Division I FBS Power Five programs -- a victory over Iowa and games against Nebraska and Kansas. In addition, Sweeney went on to serve as a trustee at Doane and as comptroller of one of the country's most important railroads -- the Northern Pacific Railway. While it is difficult to locate on-line newspaper sources from the 1890s in Nebraska, Sweeney qualifies under WP:CFBCOACH, and I added several sources which I believe are sufficient to demonstrate that he also passes WP:GNG and WP:BASIC. Cbl62 (talk) 14:24, 21 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Cbl62. Jweiss11 (talk) 20:05, 22 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep Cbl62 says it better than I can. There are some sources, and we need to keep in mind how different an era the 1890s were. ~EDDY ^{(talk/contribs)}~ 00:05, 23 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Cbl62. Meets WP:GNG. Ejgreen77 (talk) 03:36, 23 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The "highest level of the sport" is a meaningless metric when that level is a regional competition only, which only gets regional attention. That the teams they played against "now" are important is a case of WP:INHERITED. Being a railroad comptroller hardly is a notable job, and neither is being a college trustee. WP:CFBCOACH is not an accepted notability guideline, and a local consensus does not trump the GNG (for good reason). His obituary, which you added, doesn't even mention his coaching career, which seems strange if this such an important function that it creates automatic notability. If he was notable, according to that obituary, it clearly wasn't for his sporting career. The other obituary is clearly based on the same text, using the same wording in mutiple places, and also doesn't mention his sporting career at all. This is a passing mention, as is this.
Basically, there is not a single indepth source about his sporting career, and the two decent sources (the obituaries) don't mention it and read like reprints of what the family sent them, not some independent journalistic work. So no, he doesn't meet GNG or BASIC, and the college football notability essay is correctly not accepted as an actual guideline. Fram (talk) 09:28, 23 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Being a college trustee is never considered a sign of notability. If Sweeney is notable it is as comptroller for the Northern Pacific Railroad. If notability exists it is for that, and not at all for his not even mentioned in obituaries role in football. However since the obituaries do not exhibit indepdent reasearch, I would still say delete.John Pack Lambert (talk) 13:02, 23 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep passes WP:GNG from sources in article. One of the first college football programs in the state of Nebraska and helped to pioneer the sport in the area.--Paul McDonald (talk) 04:11, 26 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.