William Winston Roper (August 22, 1880 – December 10, 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 wi ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, 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 t ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the

Virginia Military Institute la, Consilio et Animis (on seal) , mottoeng = "In peace a glorious asset, In war a tower of strength""By courage and wisdom" (on seal) , established = , type = Public senior military college , accreditation = SACS , endowment = $696.8 mill ...

(1903–1904),

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 ...

(1906–1908, 1910–1911, 1919–1930), the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

(1909), and

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

(1915–1916), compiling a career

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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

record of 112–38–18. Roper's

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 ...

teams of 1906, 1911, 1920, and 1922 have been recognized as

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

. His 89 wins are the most of any coach in the history of the program. Roper was also the head

coach at Princeton for one season in 1902–03, tallying a mark of 8–7. Roper played football as an end, basketball, and baseball as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

at Princeton, from which he graduated in 1902. He 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 vo ...

as a coach in 1951. Roper served on the NCAA Football Rules Committee.

Early life and playing career

Roper was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, on August 22, 1880. He attended the

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be op ...

where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He continued all three sports in college at

Coaching career

VMI

Roper was the sixth head football coach at

(VMI) in

Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines ...

, serving for two seasons, from 1903 to 1904, and compiling a record of 5–6. Roper had planned to study medicine, but was unable to, for health reasons. While a coach at VMI, he studied law, and later in life he became qualified as an attorney.

Princeton

In 1906, Roper was the head coach at Princeton and held that position through the 1908 season. During his first stint as the head coach at Princeton, he compiled a 21–4–4 record.

Missouri

Roper coached football at the

for the 1909 season, where his team went 7–0–1 and won the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

title.

Return to Princeton

His second stint at Princeton lasted from 1910 to 1911. During that tenure, he compiled a 15–1–2 record.

Swarthmore

In 1915 and 1916, Roper coached at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. In his two seasons at Swarthmore, the team compiled a record of 11–4–1.

Third term at Princeton

In his final stint at Princeton, Roper held his longest-tenured coaching position. His term lasted from 1919 to 1930, but ended due to an illness. He continues to hold the record for most wins by a Princeton coach.

William Winston Roper Trophy

Princeton University's highest honor for a male athlete, the William Winston Roper Trophy, is named in his honor and awarded annually. Some of the more recent honorees have included NFL football player

Dennis Norman Dennis M. Norman (born January 26, 1980) is a former American football guard. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the seventh round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He played college football at Princeton. Norman has also played for the Jacksonvil ...

(’01), NHL hockey player

Cameron Atkinson Cameron Thomas Atkinson (born June 5, 1989) is an American professional ice hockey right winger for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Atkinson was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the sixth round, 157th overall, ...

(’03), lacrosse player

Ryan Boyle Ryan J. Boyle (born November 22, 1981 in Hunt Valley, Maryland) is a former lacrosse player who last played professional field lacrosse for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse (MLL). He most recently played professional box lacr ...

(‘04), Olympic and world champion fencer

Soren Thompson Soren Hunter Miles Sussman Thompson (born May 5, 1981) is an American épée fencer, team world champion, and two-time Olympian. He represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he reached the quarterfinals and came in 7t ...

(‘05), MLB baseball player

Will Venable William Dion Venable (born October 29, 1982) is an American professional baseball coach and former player. He is the associate manager of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB as an outfielder for the San Diego Pad ...

(‘05), squash player Yasser El Halaby ('06), and lacrosse player Peter Trombino ('07).

Political and business career

In 1912,

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...

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 Roper as the appraiser of merchandise at the

Port of Philadelphia The Port of Philadelphia is located on the Delaware River in Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Generally the term applies to the publicly owned marine terminals located within Philadelphia city limits along west bank of the river. Th ...

. He was later a member of the

Philadelphia City Council The Philadelphia City Council, the legislative body of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consists of ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large. The council president is elected by the members from among their number. Each ...

and the local manager of the

Prudential Insurance Company Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers thr ...

. As a politician he worked successfully to repeal

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, though he himself was a teetotaller, and to change Pennsylvania's

blue laws Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons ...

, which did not allow sports on Sundays.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roper, Bill 1880 births 1933 deaths 20th-century American politicians American football ends American men's basketball players Baseball outfielders Princeton Tigers baseball players Princeton Tigers football coaches Princeton Tigers football players Princeton Tigers men's basketball coaches Princeton Tigers men's basketball players Missouri Tigers football coaches Swarthmore Garnet Tide football coaches VMI Keydets football coaches College Football Hall of Fame inductees Philadelphia City Council members University of Virginia School of Law alumni Businesspeople in insurance Prudential Financial people Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Philadelphia Baseball players from Philadelphia Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania