George Marshall Varnell (August 10, 1882 – February 4, 1967) was an American

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete, Gonzaga University's first basketball coach,

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 ...

who refereed a record-setting eight Rose Bowl games, and sports editor of two major Pacific Northwest newspapers. He competed in the

1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 29 August to 3 September 1904, as part of an extended s ...

, finishing fourth in the 200 metre hurdles event as well as fourth in the 400 metre hurdles competition. Varnell served as the

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 ...

during the

1919 Rose Bowl The 1919 Rose Bowl, known at the time as the Tournament East-West Football Game, was a bowl game played on January 1, 1919, at Tournament Park in Pasadena, California. It was the 5th Rose Bowl Game. With the war just over, the game was played wit ...

between

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Harvard 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 ...

. Varnell was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He joined the staff of the ''

Spokane Daily Chronicle The ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'' is a daily digital newspaper in Spokane, Washington. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1881 and grew into an afternoon daily, competing with ''The Spokesman-Review'', which was formed from the merger of two comp ...

'' in 1908 and later became sports editor for the newspaper. He moved to

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

in 1925, where was a sports editor and associated editor for

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

until his retirement in 1966. During his time in Seattle, Varnell was extremely supportive of

The Boys in the Boat ''The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics'' is a non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown and published on June 4, 2013. Background ''The Boys in the Boat'' is a true story based ...

and covered their team for decades, including the 1936 team that won a gold medal in the Olympics in Germany. Varnell died on February 4, 1967, at a hospital in Seattle, following an illness lasting 18 months.

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* 1882 births 1967 deaths American male hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1904 Summer Olympics Basketball coaches from Illinois College football officials Gonzaga Bulldogs football coaches Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Olympic track and field athletes of the United States The Seattle Times people Sportspeople from Chicago Sportswriters from Washington (state) Track and field athletes from Chicago Track and field athletes from Seattle {{US-hurdles-athletics-bio-stub