George Crowther
Brown Bears
PositionQuarterback
Personal information
Born:October 3, 1891
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died:July 23, 1963 (aged 71)
Massachusetts, U.S.
Career history
CollegeBrown
Career highlights and awards
First-team All-American (1912)

George M. "Kid" Crowther (October 3, 1891 – July 23, 1963) was an American football player. He was named the consensus All-American at quarterback in 1912.

Biography

A native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Crowther enrolled at Brown University where he played three years of varsity football. He was Brown's starting quarterback from 1910 to 1912.[1] He scored 77 points on 14 touchdowns and a field goal during his career at Brown. Crowther was considered "a slippery runner with good speed."[1] Crowther did not wear a helmet and instead played with a white elastic band around his head.[1]

Various accounts indicate that he weighed between 130 and 135 pounds while playing football at Brown.[1][2] He received the nickname "Kid" because of his small size.[2] In a game against Harvard in 1912, the Harvard coach suggested that the diminutive Crowther should be removed for the game "for his own safety," and Crowther responded with a 48-yard run for a touchdown in the game.[2] Crowther's run was Brown's only touchdown against Harvard; one newspaper described the play as follows: "The last period was played in twilight and it was then that Crowther, the Brown quarter back, ran half the length of the field for Brown's only touchdown."[3]

Crowther also handled kickoff and punt returns for Brown, and in 1911 he tied the Brown record for the longest kickoff return with a 110-yard return against UMass.[4] Crowther also had other long runs, including a 65-yard kickoff return against Bowdoin.[1] He also led Brown to a 30–7 win over Penn, Crowther reportedly "returned punts like a demon, and crisply directed four touchdown drives that had the fans at old Andrews Field delirious with joy."[1] At the end of the 1912 season, Crowthers was selected as a first-team All-American at the quarterback position by Walter Camp (for Collier's Weekly) and W.J. MacBeth.[5][6][7]

Crowther also played baseball at Brown and later in semi-professional leagues around New England.[1]

Crowther graduated from Brown in 1913.[1] He later recalled playing against Jim Thorpe in a Thanksgiving Day game against the Carlisle Indian School. He described Thorpe as the "best I ever played against."[8]

Crowther lived in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in his later years.[8] His wife, Elizabeth Crowther, died in September 1962.[9] Crowther died less than a year later in July 1963.

Crowther was posthumously inducted into the Brown University Hall of Fame in 1972.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "George M. Crowther profile". Brown University Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on August 1, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c "From Martha Mitchell's Encyclopedia Brunoniana: Football". Brown University.
  3. ^ "All Kinds of Playing". Anaconda Standard. October 27, 1912.
  4. ^ Mike Szostak (September 5, 2003). "Brown's All-Decade Team 1910-1919". The Providence Journal.
  5. ^ "American Gridiron Lights Are Chosen: Camp Picks One Western Man on All-Star Team". The Indianapolis Star. December 3, 1912.
  6. ^ "MacBeth Nominates an All-American Eleven". Salt Lake Tribune. December 8, 1912.
  7. ^ "Picking "All-American" Teams a Fad: Here's Latest and It Comes from New York; And of Course, They're All Easterners, Havard, Carlisle and Dartmouth". The Lima News. December 10, 1912.
  8. ^ a b "Fitchburg Puts Final Check On Thorpe, Residents Recall Baseball, Football Episodes". Fitchburg Sentinel. April 27, 1953.
  9. ^ "Deaths: Mrs. George Crowther". Fitchburg Sentinel. September 17, 1962.
Categories