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William Hanford "Big Bill" Edwards (February 23, 1877 – January 4, 1943) was an
William Hanford "Big Bill" Edwards (February 23, 1877 – January 4, 1943) 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 who played guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison gu ...
for the Princeton Tigers football
The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level as a member of the Ivy League. Princeton's foot ...
team of 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 ...
from 1896 to 1899.
Biography
He was born on February 23, 1877, inLisle, New York
Lisle is a town in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 2,751 at the 2010 census.
The town is in the northwestern part of the county and is north of Binghamton. The town includes a village also named Lisle.
History
...
.
After graduation, he became an official, and in 1916 wrote a book entitled ''Football Days'', which is perhaps the most extensive first-hand account of American college football in the 19th century.
In 1906, Edwards was the referee for the first game of the "Ohio League
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
" championship between the Canton Bulldogs
The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Lea ...
and the Massillon Tigers
The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships i ...
. The two-game series was the setting for a game-rigging scandal that eventually resulted in the demise of both teams. During the scandal, members of the Bulldogs were accused of throwing the championship to the Tigers. While Edwards officiated the first game of the series, he was unavailable to referee the second game because of a prior commitment to officiate that year's Harvard–Yale game.
In 1910, he thwarted an attempt on the life of New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
mayor William Gaynor by tackling the assailant and sustaining a flesh wound in the arm in the process. For his heroism, Edwards was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism. College Football Hall of Fame biography of Big Bill Edwards/ref>
Later that decade, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
appointed Edwards as collector of Internal Revenue
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
for New York's Second District.
Edwards was deputy of street cleaning in New York before becoming chief of waste disposal
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...
in nearby Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
. In 1926, Edwards became the first president of the first American Football League
The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
, which disbanded at the end of the season. Fourteen years later, his name was mentioned as a possible president of the third AFL at the press conference announcing the formation of the league, but he did not serve in that position.
He died on January 4, 1943, in Manhattan, New York City
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
. His funeral was held at Calvary Episcopal Church in Manhattan.
Legacy
He was elected to theCollege 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 vo ...
in 1971.
See also
* List of covers of ''Time'' magazine (1920s) (October 4, 1926)References
External links
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Bill 1877 births 1943 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football guards American Football League (1926) College football officials Princeton Tigers football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Lisle, New York Players of American football from New York (state)