William Orville "Wild Bill" Hickok III (August 23, 1874 – September 4, 1933) 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 industrialist. Inevitably

nicknamed A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

" Wild Bill" for the

folk hero A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; an ...

of the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

, and also known as "Hickey," he starred at

Yale University 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 wo ...

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

as well as football and was eventually inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

. After his athletic career, he became the president of his family's manufacturing business.

Early years

Hickok was born in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

, to William Orville Hickok Jr., and Louisa Harrison Anderson Hickok. The family was prominent in Harrisburg civic life through his grandfather's machinery business, W.O. Hickok Manufacturing Company.

Yale University

Bill played

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at Yale and was twice selected as an All-American. In addition, he set records in the

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

and

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

for the track team.

Coaching career

Carlisle

After completing his studies, Hickok returned to Pennsylvania. In 1896 he was asked by another Yale graduate from Harrisburg,

Vance McCormick Vance Criswell McCormick (June 19, 1872 – June 16, 1946) was an American politician and prominent businessman from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He served as mayor of Harrisburg from 1902 to 1905 and as United States Democratic National Committee ...

, to coach the football team McCormick had organized at the nearby

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle ...

. The team went 5-5 against a challenging schedule that included the leading

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

powers. For the game against his alma mater, Hickok also served as a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

(a common practice at the time) along with an official provided by the Yale side. In a memorable moment, the Indians appeared to have scored a late

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

to potentially tie the game when one of their players broke free with a handoff after the team's halfback had dived into the line. However, Hickok blew his whistle to call it back on the grounds that the play was dead prior to the handoff, causing his own team to protest. One newspaper covering the contest would compare his action to that of a corrupt Indian agent.

Hickok Manufacturing Company

Other than serving as an assistant coach at Yale, Hickok spent most of his remaining life in Harrisburg. He married Avis Cochran and eventually served as president of the Hickok Manufacturing Company. After his death in 1933, the position passed to his brother Ross.

Head coaching record

References

* Jenkins, Sally. ''The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation''. New York: Doubleday, 2007. * Benjey, Tom. To correct the error copied from p. 55 of Jenkins that the 1896 record was 6-4 when it was actually 5-5. Jenkins appears to have accepted the erroneous score of the 1896 Carlisle-Brown game on p. 21 of Steckbeck.

External links

*
Ross A. Hickok papers index
— Pennsylvania State Archives * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hickok, Bill 1874 births 1933 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football guards Carlisle Indians football coaches Yale Bulldogs football players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania