Arthur Poe (March 22, 1879 – April 15, 1951) 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 wi ...
player and businessman, and one of six celebrated
Poe brothers
The Poe brothers were six American football players who played football at Princeton University from 1882 until 1901. They were sons of John P. Poe Sr., an 1854 Princeton graduate and the Attorney General of Maryland from 1891 until 1895. They wer ...
—second cousins, twice removed, of American author
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
—to play football at Princeton in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was selected retroactively by the
Helms Athletic Foundation as the national college football player of the year for 1899,
and was elected to the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1969.
College career
Poe attended
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, and was named to
Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...
's
All-American football second team in 1898 and first team in 1899. He was one of the
Poe Brothers
The Poe brothers were six American football players who played football at Princeton University from 1882 until 1901. They were sons of John P. Poe Sr., an 1854 Princeton graduate and the Attorney General of Maryland from 1891 until 1895. They wer ...
, six celebrated American football players – second cousins, twice removed of American author
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
– to play football at Princeton in the late 19th and early 20th century. Arthur made the plays that led to victories over
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
in 1898 and 1899. In 1898 he took the ball from a Yale runner's grasp and raced 100 yards for the game's only score. This feat, done while Poe had a bad knee, was known as "Poe's Run." Remarkably, he almost repeated the feat in the game's second half when he ran 90 yards with a Yale
fumble for an apparent touchdown before the ball was ruled down where it had been recovered.
In 1899, Poe volunteered to attempt a game-winning
field goal with only 30 seconds to play. Poe, despite never having before kicked in a game, volunteered to kick because both of Princeton's
kickers had left the game due to injury. His kick was good and brought about an 11-10 Princeton victory over Yale. In 1914, a ''
Pittsburgh Press
''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...
'' article declared the last-minute winning field goal "Football's Greatest Moment." Both his winning run in 1898 and kick against the Elis in 1899 were celebrated in comic, quasi-epic poems by fellow Princeton grad M'Cready Sykes in a book entitled "Poe's Run and Other Poems." Of Poe's long touchdown run to beat Yale 6-0 in 1898, Sykes penned:
"Hys eyes on ye dystante Goale;
He lookes behynde him not,
but from ye Scripture learned in Youthe
Rememberethe Mrs. Lot.
"Ye Elis tears in fierce Pursuite;
But Poe eludes ycm alle;
He rushes 'twixt ye quyverrynge Postes,
& sytteth on ye Balle."
Poe's stardom on the gridiron as a junior and senior at Princeton was the result of a remarkable comeback from a severe leg injury suffered during his freshman year, after which doctors doubted that he would ever play football again. At only 5-7 and 146 pounds, he was a standout on the defensive line, and in addition to his heroics in Yale games had an 80-yard touchdown run to beat
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
and a 40-yard run to help defeat
Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...
in his junior season.
In addition to excelling at football, Arthur was the top
wrestler
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat spor ...
during his time at Princeton and was voted the most popular man in his class.
Dartmouth star
Fred Crolius
Frederick Joseph Crolius (April 19, 1876 – August 25, 1960) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He was the first player from Tufts University to play Major League Baseball. He was at Tufts in 1894, and at Dartmouth College, ...
, who played with Poe on the
Homestead Library & Athletic Club
The Carnegie Library of Homestead is a public library founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1898.
It is one of 2,509 Carnegie libraries worldwide; 1,689 built in the United States. It was the sixth library commissioned by Carnegie in the U.S. and the s ...
team after they had both left college, described Poe's grit as an undersized football star. "Arthur Poe was about as game a man as the football world ever saw" said Crolius. "He was handicapped in his playing by a knee which would easily slip out of place. We men who played with him on the Homestead team were often stopped after Arthur had made a magnificent tackle and had broken up heavy interference, with this quiet request: 'Pull my bum knee back into place.' After this was done, he would jump up and no one would ever know that it had been out. This man, who perhaps was the smallest man playing at that time, was absolutely unprotected. His suit consisted of a pair of shoes, stockings, unpadded pants, jersey and one elastic knee bandage."
Professional career
In 1900 and 1901, Poe played for the Homestead Library & Athletic Club as the team won the mythical professional football championship both years. In 1902, he joined many of his former Homestead players in the
first National Football League as a member of the
Pittsburgh Stars
The Pittsburgh Stars or Pittsburg Stars were a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that were only in existence for one season in 1902. The team was a member of what was referred to as the first National Football ...
. The Stars would go on to win the league title that year.
Later life
After graduating from Princeton in 1900, Poe married Anne Emerson King in 1904.
"Football Hero to Marry"
/ref> They moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he would become the assistant plant manager and then the plant manager for the Quaker Oats Company
The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001.
History Precursor miller companies
In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. Sc ...
. As a civic leader in Cedar Rapids, he served as director of the Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
; chairman of all Liberty Loan drives; president of the Princeton alumni class of 1900; president of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce; president of the Coe College
Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associatio ...
Board of Trustees; vice president of St. Luke's Hospital; a member of the International Board of Directors of the Y.M.C.A.; trustee of the School of Religion at the University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
; chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Diocese of Iowa and trustee of Iowa Episcopate Funds; and vice president of the Morris Plan Bank
Morris Plan Banks were part of a historic banking system in the United States created to assist the middle class in obtaining loans that were often difficult to obtain at traditional banks. They were established by Arthur J. Morris (1881–1973), ...
.
He was honored after his death in 1951 by the Quaker Oats Co., who erected a non-denominational chapel on the Coe College campus, the Poe Chapel, in his memory.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Poe, Art
1879 births
1951 deaths
19th-century players of American football
American football ends
All-American college football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Homestead Library & Athletic Club players
Pittsburgh Stars players
Players of American football from Baltimore
Princeton Tigers football players
American football drop kickers
Quaker Oats Company people
Poe family (United States)