Fuzzy Woodruff
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Lorenzo Ferguson "Fuzzy" Woodruff (May 27, 1884 – December 7, 1929) was an early 20th-century American
sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...
known throughout most of the
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for his vivid writing. He was also a
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
and
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
critic. He began his newspaper career as a member of the ''
Montgomery Advertiser The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829. History The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. It ...
'' in 1907. Among the newspapers he served were the ''
Birmingham News ''The Birmingham News'' is the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The paper is owned by Advance Publications and was a daily newspaper from its founding through September 30, 2012. After that day, the ''News'' and its two ...
'', the ''
Birmingham Age-Herald The ''Birmingham Post-Herald'' was a daily newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama, with roots dating back to 1850, before the founding of Birmingham. The final edition was published on September 23, 2005. In its last full year, its average daily circu ...
'', the ''New Orleans States'', the ''
Mobile Register The ''Press-Register'' (known from 1997 to 2006 as the ''Mobile Register'') is a thrice-weekly newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin. The newspaper is a descendant of one founded in 1813, making the ''Press-Regi ...
'', the ''
New York Evening World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publ ...
'', the ''
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'', the '' Chicago Examiner'', the ''St. Louis Dispatch'', the ''
Atlanta Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Con ...
'', the ''
Atlanta Georgian ''The Atlanta Georgian'' was an American daily afternoon newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. History Founded by New Jersey native Fred Loring Seely, the first issue was April 25, 1906, with editor John Temple Graves. They mainly cri ...
'', and the ''
Atlanta Journal ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
''.


College football

Recalling the only game in which the 'Iron Men' of the undefeated 1899 Sewanee Tigers football team, who won five road games in six days, were scored upon–by
John Heisman John William Heisman (October 23, 1869 – October 3, 1936) was a player and coach of American football, baseball, and basketball, as well as a sportswriter and actor. He served as the head football coach at Oberlin College, Buchtel College ...
's Auburn team in a close 11 to 10 win, Woodruff wrote:
Under Heisman's tutelage, Auburn played with a marvelous speed and dash that couldn't be gainsaid and which fairly swept Sewanee off its feet. Only the remarkable punting of Simkins kept the game from being a debacle. I recall vividly one incident of the game, which demonstrates clearly just how surprising was Sewanee's victory. The Purple was taking time out. They began this early in the game, when their athletes appeared tired and worn whereas Auburn men were full of fight and fire. A Sewanee player was down, his head being bathed... Suter, the Sewanee coach, and Heisman, the Auburn mentory, were walking up and down the field together. They approached this boy. The rules were not as rigid then I guess against coaches encroaching on the field of play or conversing with player or anyhow they were not enforced for Suter, evidently as mad as fire, asked the down and out player 'Are you fellows going to be run over like this all afternoon?' 'Coach,' said the boy, lifting his tired head from the ground, 'we just can't stand this stuff. We've never seen anything like it.' Suter and Heisman turned away. 'Can you beat that?' Suter asked the Auburn coach. Heisman didn't say anything, I guess he thought a great deal. He told me afterwards that he had never felt so sorry for a man on a football field as he had for Suter at that moment.
A Sewanee legend of just a few years after, Henry D. Phillips, was called by Woodruff "the greatest football player who ever sank cleated shoes into a chalk line south of the Mason-Dixon line." Of Vanderbilt's winningest coach
Dan McGugin Daniel Earle McGugin (July 29, 1879 – January 23, 1936) was an American football player and coach, as well as a lawyer. He served as the head football coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1904 to 1917 and again from ...
, Woodruff wrote "The plain facts of the business are that McGugin stood out in the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
like
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among the native sons of Lilliput. There was no foeman worthy of the McGugin steel.” After the loss of
Knute Rockne Knut (Norwegian and Swedish), Knud (Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used whi ...
's
Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...
to
Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
in
1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...
, Rockne wrote of an attack on his coaching in the ''Atlanta Journal'', "I am surprised that a paper of such fine, high standing s yourswould allow a zipper to write in his particular vein . . . the article by Fuzzy Woodruff was not called for." The last game he ever covered was the Alabama–Tennessee game of
1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
.


Death

Woodruff's tombstone is inscribed "Copy All In". Three rifle volleys were fired over the grave and taps played on an army bugle as his casket was lowered into Crestlawn Cemetery, Atlanta. Woodruff was buried in a bloodstained overseas uniform that he brought back. The blood on the uniform was not his own but that of a foreign youth who died in his arms as "Fuzzy" led his men over the top at the Battle of Soissons. "He was a nice boy and I liked him" declared "Fuzzy" in explaining the attachment to the uniform.


Bibliography

''A History of Southern Football, 1890-1928''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodruff, Fuzzy 1884 births 1929 deaths Sportspeople from Montgomery, Alabama University of Alabama alumni Sportswriters from Alabama Journalists from Alabama