One in 5,000.

Those are the odds a college football player or coach has of joining the College Football Hall of Fame, according to its website. Fortunately, Ouachita's Morley Jennings made a career out of defying the odds.

Born in Michigan in 1890, Jennings competed in multiple sports at Albion College before following his coach, W.D. Chadwick, to Mississippi A&M (known today as Mississippi State). Per the Texas State Historical Association, Jennings became the first student-athlete in his new school's history to letter in football, baseball, basketball and track for three straight years. 

Upon graduating in 1912, Jennings pursued a career in professional baseball, where he was known as Bill Morley. After playing more than 200 minor league games between 1912 and 1913, Morley made his major league debut as the starting second baseman for the Washington Nationals (now the Minnesota Twins) on September 8, 1913. The following day, he pinch ran for Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson. Morley's second game in the majors was his last, though he continued to play in the minors until 1922.

Pro baseball wasn't the only career endeavor Jennings began in 1912. That fall, he started as Ouachita's new head football coach, leading his team to a 2-1-1 record in his first year. The Tigers would never have a losing season under Jennings, going undefeated on three separate occasions (1914, 1917, 1924). The first of those unbeaten campaigns saw Ouachita best Arkansas and Ole Miss, with the latter victory being a shutout.

Across 14 seasons, Jennings' Tigers more than quintupled the scoring output of their opponents, tallying over 2,000 points while allowing fewer than 400. Ouachita scored 109 in a single game against Arkansas College (Lyon College) in 1919, setting a team record that has stood for more than a century. The .783 winning percentage Jennings posted with the Tigers remains the highest of any coach in program history.

In 1926, Jennings took the football head coaching job at Baylor, where he immediately improved the Bears to a 6-3-1 record from a 3-5-2 performance the season before. Then, tragedy struck. On January 22, 1927, a bus accident claimed the lives of 10 Baylor students (known as "the Immortal Ten"), nine of whom played for Jennings. A grief-stricken 2-7 football season followed. One year later, however, the former Ouachita coach rallied his troops to an 8-2 outing. By 1937, the Bears reached No. 4 in the national AP poll – the program's highest ranking until 2013. Jennings ended up spending 15 years in Waco, Texas, compiling 10 winning seasons and an 83-60-6 record there.  

Following his retirement, Jennings became the first of now seven Ouachita head football coaches to join the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame with his induction in 1961. He has since taken up Hall of Fame membership at Baylor (1965), Mississippi State (1976) and Ouachita (2004). And, of course, he holds residency at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the 1973 induction class.