Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Griffith was a four-time college football letter winner for the University of Iowa from 1897 to 1900. Griffith, a fullback, played for some of the greatest teams in Iowa football history. Against Illinois in 1899, Griffith returned a punt 85 yards as Iowa won, 58–0, to cap an undefeated season. After the game, referee R. T. Hoagland of Princeton said, "The dodging run of Griffith down the field for a touchdown was the best piece of individual playing that I ever saw. The men are all stars; they make the best team I ever saw." In Iowa's first year in the Western Conference in 1900, Griffith was named Iowa's team captain. The team won the Western Conference title in Iowa's first year in the league. Iowa had to settle for a controversial 5–5 tie against Northwestern in Griffith's final game at Iowa. The entire team except Griffith ate a bad batch of creamed potatoes and got food poisoning the day before the game. Still, Griffith did not suffer a defeat in his final twenty games as a player at Iowa, going 17–0–3. His last collegiate loss was late in his sophomore season.
Coaching career
Griffith graduated from Iowa in 1901, and coached at Simpson for a year. In 1902, he was hired as head football coach and athletic director at the University of Idaho in Moscow. When Iowa football coach Alden Knipe retired after the 1902 season, school officials considered hiring Griffith but went with John Chalmers instead. Griffith continued as Idaho's football coach through 1906. When Chalmers was succeeded by Mark Catlin as Iowa's head coach, Griffith left Idaho to serve as Catlin's assistant coach at Iowa in 1907 and 1908. the 1908–1909 season, Iowa's first basketball season in the Big Ten. Prior to the 1909 football season, Caitlin left Iowa for Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and the Hawkeyes hired Griffith as their ninth head football coach. He was the first Iowa graduate to lead the football team and coached Iowa to a 2–4–1 record in 1909; the star player that season was Walter "Stub" Stewart. Griffith finished out the 1909–1910 basketball season, his third as a head basketball coach. His team went 11–3 that year, bringing Griffith's three year basketball coaching record to 29–14. After the basketball season, Griffith announced he was leaving Iowa, and Stewart replaced him as the basketball coach. After just one season as head football coach, Griffith left Iowa and returned to Idaho to become the head of their entomology department. He also served as their head football coach again from 1910 through 1914, and his ten-year record at Idaho was 28–22–2. Griffith also coached football at Oklahoma A&M in 1915 and 1916, compiling an 8–9–1 record. In 1917, he led the football team at New Mexico A&M to a 4–2 record.
