George Robinson Cartier (May 26, 1869 in Ludington, Michigan – October 21, 1944 in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

) 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

lumber baron A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

in the Pacific northwest. Cartier was the

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 ...

for the very first game in the history of the

Notre Dame football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame S ...

program — a 0-8 loss to

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 ...

on November 23, 1887. George was the younger brother of philanthropist Warren A. Cartier, for whom the university's Cartier Field was named. After graduating from Notre Dame in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

, Cartier relocated to South Bend, Washington, where he became co-founder and manager of the South Bend Mills & Timber Company, and was elected mayor of the city in 1910. In 1919, he built the Copper Creek Lodge near

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

in Ashford, Washington, and lived there with his wife and daughter until 1931.

References

* Ludington Daily News, October 20, 1990
George Cartier's role largely overlooked
1869 births American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players 1944 deaths People from Ludington, Michigan People from South Bend, Washington Mayors of places in Washington (state) {{quarterback-stub