Alanson Weeks (September 15, 1877 – November 25, 1947) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and medical doctor. Weeks was born in

Allegan, Michigan Allegan ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Its population was 5,222 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Allegan County. It lies within Allegan Township but is administratively autonomous. History The men after whom Allegan's ...

, in 1877. He was the son of Julia Shoemaker and Capt. Harrison Weeks. He enrolled at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

as a

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

for the undefeated 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team that were declared "Champions of the West." His younger brother,

Boss Weeks Harrison Samuel "Boss" Weeks Jr. (April 3, 1879 – February 25, 1906) was an American football player and coach. He played quarterback for the University of Michigan from 1900 to 1902 and served as head football coach at the University of Kansas ...

, was the captain for

Fielding H. Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

's "Point-a-Minute" teams at Michigan. Weeks graduated from the University of Michigan in 1899 with a medical degree. He moved to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, where he became a surgeon. He was in that city at the time of the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

and fire. From 1912 until 1919 (except for the time in military service), he was the chief surgeon of San Francisco's emergency hospital service. For many years, he also served as a professor of surgery at the University of California Medical School. He was also "credited with developing many surgical procedures" which became common practice. Weeks served as a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Medical Corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are examples of medica ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was awarded the

Army Distinguished Service Medal The Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a military decoration of the United States Army that is presented to soldiers who have distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility. Th ...

for meritorious and distinguished service for his work as a surgeon and director of surgical teams at the front during the

Second Battle of the Marne The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First World War. The attack failed wh ...

, the

Battle of Saint-Mihiel The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12–15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against ...

, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Weeks later served as the chief surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, holding that position until his retirement in 1946. In 1947, Weeks died of a heart attack at the Pacific Union Club in San Francisco. He had been living at the Club since his wife died in 1943.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Alanson 1877 births 1947 deaths 19th-century players of American football Michigan Wolverines football players United States Army personnel of World War I People from Allegan, Michigan Players of American football from San Francisco Players of American football from Michigan Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) United States Army Medical Corps officers American surgeons University of Michigan Medical School alumni Military personnel from Michigan Physicians from Michigan 20th-century American physicians 20th-century surgeons