Charley "Chuck" Barrett (November 3, 1893 – May 21, 1924) 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. He was the consensus All-American

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 ...

in 1914 and 1915 while playing for

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and led Cornell to an undefeated season and

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

in 1915. He was elected to 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 1958.

Early years

Barrett was born in

Bellevue, Pennsylvania Bellevue is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Ohio River, adjoining Pittsburgh. The population was 8,311 at the 2020 census. The borough was incorporated in 1867. There is a public park and library, the Andr ...

, and raised in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. He attended the

University School University School, commonly referred to as US, is an all-boys, private, Junior Kindergarten–12 school with two campus locations in the Greater Cleveland area of Ohio. The campus located in Shaker Heights serves junior kindergarten through eighth ...

in Cleveland before enrolling at

Cornell

At Cornell, Barrett was quarterback for the football team and a pitcher for the

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 ...

team. He was Cornell's quarterback from 1913 to 1915 where he developed a reputation as "a real triple threat man" who kept opponents guessing, with his talents as a rusher, passer and kicker. He led Cornell to a record of 8–2 in 1914 and 9–0 in 1915. The undefeated 1915 team was recognized as the national football champion and became known as "the 'Big Red' machine." In Barrett's final college football game, Cornell trailed the Penn by a score of 9–0, but Barrett scored 24 points to lead the Big Red to a 24–9 victory. He scored on runs of 40, 25 and three yards and drop-kicked a field goal and three extra points. Barrett was selected as the consensus first-team All-American quarterback in both 1914 and 1915. He was also selected by his teammates as the captain of the 1915 football team. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called him "the greatest football player ever developed at Cornell." Barrett had difficulties keeping up with his classwork as a mechanical engineering student and was placed on academic probation in February 1915. The probation was removed in time for Barrett to play for the football team in the fall of 1915. In February 1916, Barrett was "busted out" of Cornell's College of Mechanical Engineering for failure to meet his scholastic requirements.

Later years and death

Barrett served as an ensign in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War I 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 ...

. In 1918, he was injured in an explosion on the armored

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

USS Brooklyn in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

harbor and never fully recovered from the injuries. After returning to the United States, Barrett lived in

. In November 1919, he married Edna Stevens in a private ceremony at the home of the bride's sister. Barrett and his wife had two daughters. Barrett later went into the real estate business in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He moved to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

in 1923, hoping to recover his health. He died in Tucson in May 1924 at age 30. In 1925, a bronze tablet was unveiled in the lobby of Cornell's Schoellkopf Memorial Clubhouse containing the following tribute to Barrett: "In memory of Charles Barrett, who died May 21, 1924, as a result of illness contracted in an explosion on the U.S.S. Brooklyn in Yokohama Harbor, Japan, during the World War. As a tribute to his splendid loyalty and leadership and as homage to a most worthy gridiron adversary, we respectfully dedicate this tablet to Cornell University. His teammates and friends, and the 1915 Pennsylvania football team."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Charley 1893 births 1924 deaths Cornell Big Red football players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees American football drop kickers American football quarterbacks Cornell University College of Engineering alumni