George V. "Shorty" Chalmers (November 19, 1907 – March 1984) was an American college athlete. He served as 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 ...

of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

from 1929 to 1931. Chalmers also played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and baseball at Maryland. He has been inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame and the

University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame The University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 1982 by the M Club Foundation to honor student-athletes, coaches, and administrators who made significant contributions to athletics at the University of Maryland, College Park, U ...

College career

A native of

New Castle, Delaware New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The city is located six miles (10 km) south of Wilmington and is situated on the Delaware River. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 5,285. History New Castl ...

, Chalmers attended the

, where he was a multi-sport athlete. He competed in football as a

back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...

, basketball as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, and baseball as an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

. On the

, Chalmers was a wingback and played a pivotal passing role in head coach

Curley Byrd Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd (February 12, 1889 – October 2, 1970) was an American university administrator, educator, athlete, coach, and politician. Byrd began a long association with the University of Maryland as an undergraduate in 1905, and ...

's high-powered double-wing offense, with his primary receiver being

Boze Berger Louis William "Boze" Berger (May 13, 1910 – November 3, 1992) was an infielder who played for the Cleveland Indians (1932, 1935–1936), Chicago White Sox (1938) and Boston Red Sox (1939). Berger batted and threw right-handed. In a six-season c ...

. In ''Tales From The Maryland Terrapins'', author David Ungrady called that tandem "one of the most dangerous pass-catch combinations in Maryland history." Chalmers played on the freshman football team in 1928 before he "graduated" to the varsity, where he helped replace the loss of

Gerald Snyder Gerald Theodore "Snitz" Snyder (August 6, 1905 – June 28, 1983) was an American football player and Army officer. He played college football as a back for the Maryland Terrapins at the University of Maryland. Snyder played professionally for ...

and Gordon Kessler to graduation. During the 1929 season, he was one of the "heroes of Maryland's dramatic finish" in its upset 13–13 tie against

Yale 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 wor ...

, alongside Moon Evans and Bosey Berger. Chalmers tallied one of the Old Liners'

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s on a pass to Berger. In 1931, Chalmers and Berger helped lead the Old Liners to an 8–1–1 record, and one of the best seasons of Coach Byrd's 24-year tenure. That season, Chalmers was one of four Maryland

s named to ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'''s All-Maryland team. The paper noted, "Complete dominance of State football by the University of Maryland during 1931 is reflected in the naming of The Sun's All-Maryland team. While selection of all four backs from a single team is unprecedented, so is the manner in which that team swept aside all opposition in this territory." ''The Sun'' called him "one of Maryland's triple threats", as a player capable of advancing the ball through 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 ...

, the rush, or by tallying points through

kicking A kick is a physical Strike (attack), strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee (strike), ...

, and considered him the best forward passer 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 ...

. He graduated from Maryland in 1932 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the College of Education. He earned a total of 12

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

during his college tenure, four each in football, basketball, and baseball. Chalmers was a member of the

Sigma Nu Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate Fraternities and sororities in North America, college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlva ...

fraternity, the

Omicron Delta Kappa Omicron Delta Kappa (), also known as The Circle and ODK, is one of the most prestigious honor societies in the United States with chapters at more than 300 college campuses. It was founded December 3, 1914, at Washington and Lee University in ...

honor society,1932 ''Reveille''
p. 54, University of Maryland, 1932. the Student Congress, and the "M" Club athletic alumni organization. The school yearbook named him the "Best Senior Athlete" in 1932. As a student, Chalmers raised

pigeons Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

as a hobby, and at one point boasted more than 110 of the birds.

Later life

After graduation, Chalmers remained involved in football in the Maryland area as a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. In 1932, he served as head coach of the independent Newark Yellow Jackets. In 1933, he was signed by the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

-based professional football team, the Frankford Legion. He was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. Chalmers was also inducted into the

in 1983.All-Time Inductees
, University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame, retrieved August 30, 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalmers, George V 1907 births 1984 deaths People from New Castle, Delaware Sportspeople from New Castle County, Delaware Maryland Terrapins football players Maryland Terrapins men's basketball players Maryland Terrapins baseball players American football quarterbacks Players of American football from Delaware American men's basketball players Forwards (basketball)