Clarence F. Alcott (August 9, 1886 – October 23, 1957) 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, coach and investment banker. He was selected as an All-American

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: **End (category theory) **End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron football) ...

in both 1906 and 1907. Alcott attended

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, Ohio where he was a prep standout before attending

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he played at the

position from 1905 to 1907. During the 1906 and 1907 seasons, the first in which the

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

was legal, Alcott developed a reputation as one of the sport's best pass receivers. In 1916, ''

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 ...

'' wrote that he "was one of Yale's most spectacular ends, especially in handling the forward pass." In Yale's 6-0 victory over Harvard in November 1906, Alcott scored the game's only points on a touchdown pass from

Paul Veeder Paul Lansing Veeder (June 5, 1884 – March 10, 1942) was an All-American football player for Yale University. Veeder played halfback, fullback, quarterback and punter for the Yale Bulldogs from 1904–1906 and was selected as an All-American in ...

. Though it was neither the first nor the longest pass of the 1906 season, the Veeder-to-Alcott pass in the Harvard game was the most publicized pass in the first season of forward passing. Some publications refer to the touchdown pass from Veeder to Alcott in the 1906 Harvard game as the "first forward pass in a major game." In his book, "A Century of The Game: Yale-Harvard Is a Matter of Pride,'

Al Morganti Michael "Al" Morganti is an American journalist. He is an analyst who has covered the National Hockey League (NHL) and international competitions. He is currently a pre- and post-game analyst for the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL for games broadca ...

claimed that "the first significant use of the forward pass in a major game, a 20-yard gain on a Paul Veeder-to-Clarence Alcoft pass in The Game of 190." Writing in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Sally Jenkins called it one of the few significant forward passes thrown in the first season of the forward pass. In fact,

Eddie Cochems Edward Bulwer Cochems (; February 4, 1877 – April 9, 1953) was an American football player and coach. He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1898 to 1901 and was the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College—no ...

's 1906 St. Louis University team built its offense around the forward pass in 1906. One of the top football officials in the country,

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

's Lt. Horatio B. Hackett officiated at Harvard, Yale and St. Louis University games in 1906. After watching St. Louis play, Hackett told a reporter, "It was the most perfect exhibition... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard. St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect." At the end of the 1906 season, Alcott was selected as a second-team All-American by

Caspar Whitney Caspar William Whitney (September 2, 1864 – January 18, 1929) was an American author, editor, explorer, outdoorsman and war correspondent. He originated the concept of the All-American team in college football in 1889 when he worked for ''Harper ...

for ''Outing'' magazine In 1907, he was selected as a first-team All-American by

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

Collier's Weekly ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

. After graduating from Yale in 1908, Alcott served on Yale's football coaching staff from 1908 until at least 1919. He also served on Yale's Football Committee, responsible for setting football policy, starting in 1920. Alcott later became an investment banker on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

in New York. He retired in 1935 and died in October 1957.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcott, Clarence 1886 births 1957 deaths American football ends All-American college football players Yale Bulldogs football players