Robert Ligon McWhorter (June 4, 1891 – June 29, 1960) played
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
and
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
at the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
.
Early years
McWhorter attended
Gordon Military College
Gordon State College is a public college in Barnesville, Georgia. A member of the University System of Georgia, Gordon State's spring 2021 enrollment was 2,890 students. The college campus incorporates , which includes academic buildings, resid ...
in
Barnesville, Georgia
Barnesville is a city in Lamar County, Georgia, Lamar County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,755, up from 5,972 at the 2000 census. The city is the cou ...
. He played football and baseball there under coach
Alex Cunningham
Alexander Cunningham (born 1 May 1955) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing since 2020.
Born i ...
. Their baseball team came up to Georgia and won 11–0. Georgia athletic chairman Dr.
S. V. Sanford hired Cunningham that same day, and McWhorter followed.
University of Georgia
Football
As a
halfback, he scored 61 touchdowns from
1910 to
1913
Events January
* January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...
. In 1913, McWhorter became UGA’s first
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n. He was the captain of both the baseball and football teams in his senior year. He was a member of the
Chi Phi Fraternity,
Phi Kappa Literary Society
The Phi Kappa Literary Society is a college literary society, located at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, and is one of the few active literary societies left in America. Founded in 1820, the society continues to meet every academic ...
, and
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
at Georgia. Sportswriter
Dick Jemison
Richard Stubbs Jemison (September 19, 1886 – January 9, 1965) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter in the South who was for eleven years the sporting editor of the ''Atlanta Constitution''. He wrote extensively on baseball and f ...
said "When you mention football to an
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
fan its definition is Bob McWhorter, and vice-versa."
During the
First World War
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 ...
, McWhorter was captain of the
1917 Camp Gordon football team.
Legacy
He made an all-time Georgia Bulldogs football team picked in 1935.
Bob McWhorter was 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 ...
in 1954. He was inducted in the
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in the United States at .
Exhibitions
The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Induc ...
in 1964. McWhorter was chosen for an ''Associated Press'' Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era.
Baseball
Although he was offered a professional baseball contract, he instead chose to study law at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
.
Attorney
After becoming an attorney, he returned to
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
to practice law. He was a four-term mayor of Athens (1940–1947) and a law professor at Georgia from 1923 to 1958. He died in the same town in which he was born, Athens, Georgia, on June 29, 1960, at the age of 69.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McWhorter, Bob
1891 births
1960 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American politicians
Camp Gordon football players
Georgia Bulldogs baseball players
Georgia Bulldogs football players
All-Southern college football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers
Mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state)
University of Georgia faculty
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Sportspeople from Athens, Georgia
Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state)
Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state)