William Stephen Wasmund (December 1887 – October 4, 1911) 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 coach. Wasmund was born in December 1887 in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. His father, Lebrecht Wasmund, was a stone contractor born in Germany. Wasmund attended

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

where he played fullback for the school's

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 rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team for two years. Wasmund's play at Lafayette attracted the attention of

Fielding H. Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Wasmund transferred to Michigan where Yost developed him into a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. Wasmund was the

Wolverines The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

' starting quarterback for three years, from 1907 to 1909. Billy Wasmund

In 1910, the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

asked Yost to recommend a coach for the Texas varsity football team, and Wasmund was hired on Yost's recommendation. Wasmund led the Longhorns to a 6–2 record in 1910, and he was rehired to return as head coach in 1911. On October 1, 1911, six days before the opening game of the 1911 season, Wasmund fell from the second-story window of the apartment where he was living near the University of Texas campus. Wasmund was rendered unconscious by the fall and received bruises to his hands, arms and hips, a deep gash on the forehead and deep cuts on both legs. He regained consciousness Sunday afternoon, but died three days after his fall. Wasmund was known to be a

somnambulist Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of lo ...

, and it is thought that he walked through the window while sleep-walking. Death resulted from a rupture of the bladder and

peritonitis Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and cover of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One part or ...

. Wasmund was 23 years old at the time of his death.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wasmund, Billy 1887 births 1911 deaths American football quarterbacks Michigan Wolverines football players Texas Longhorns football coaches Players of American football from Detroit

Head coaching record

References

Further reading

External links