David C. Campbell (September 5, 1873 – June 30, 1949) was an American

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 ...

player who was a member of the

Harvard Crimson football The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun c ...

team of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Campbell was selected as a consensus All-American at the end position for three consecutive years from 1899 to 1901. He was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the undefeated

1901 Harvard Crimson football team The 1901 Harvard Crimson football team was an American football team that represented Harvard University as an independent during the 1901 college football season. In its first season under head coach Bill Reid, the team compiled a 12–0 recor ...

that finished 12–0. 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 vote ...

in 1958. Campbell was born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

, in 1873. He grew up in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, and played football at the Worcester Academy and Lawrence Scientific School. He enrolled at Harvard in his mid-20s and played for the

team from 1899 to 1901. As team captain, he led the 1901 Harvard team to an undefeated record and co-national championship.Yale Is Overwhelmed
" ''New York Tribune'', 24 November 1901, p. 2. He was remembered as "one of the game's purest defensive stars in a pioneer era when defense dominated the competition." During his three years on the Harvard eleven, the team compiled a 32–1–1 record and recorded 26 shutout victories. Campbell graduated from Harvard in 1902. With the outbreak of

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 ...

, he worked in the manufacture of explosives in 1915 for the English and French governments. In 1916 and 1917, he manufactured flash powder for the United States government. When the United States entered the war, Campbell joined the Army and served in Europe with the 304th Tank Corps. After World War I, Campbell worked as a mining engineer in North and South America. He later worked as an investment banker in Boston. He was affiliated with the Lever Brothers Company after retiring in the early 1940s. He died in 1949 at age 75 in Boston. Campbell was posthumously inducted into the

in 1958.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Dave 1873 births 1949 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football ends United States Army personnel of World War I All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Harvard Crimson football players Players of American football from Massachusetts Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni