Parke Hill Davis (July 15, 1871 – June 5, 1934)
["PARKE H. DAVIS BURIED.; Many Prominent Men at Funeral of Football Authority", special to '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', June 9, 1934 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, coach, and historian.
Shortly before his death, Davis compiled a list of "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" for the 1934 edition of ''
Spalding's Foot Ball Guide''.
For this the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
recognizes him as a "major selector" of
college football national championships
A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best coll ...
in their official football records book. Davis' selections are the only ones noted by the NCAA to be based on historical research.
[Official 2007 NCAA Division I Football Records Book, page 73, 2007](_blank)
Early life and education
Davis was born in
Jamestown, New York
Jamestown is a city in southern Chautauqua County, in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 28,712 at the 2020 census. Situated between Lake Erie to the north and the Allegheny National Forest to the south, Jamestown is the largest pop ...
and attended
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, where he was a lineman for
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
and a member of the Tigers' "
tug-of-war
Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...
team in 1889".
[Jenkins, Dan, "This Year The Fight Will Be In The Open"]
''Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', September 11, 1967
Football coaching career
Davis went on to coach at
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
(1893),
Amherst Amherst may refer to:
People
* Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst''
* Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...
(1894) and
Lafayette (1895–98), where he also served as athletic director.
In 1896, Davis organized Lafayette's Law Club; he appeared in a leading role in a stage production of ''
The Rivals
''The Rivals'' is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 List of Maverick ...
'' at the
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...
Opera House; he read
Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
poetry at the Freshman Initiation gala; and he led Lafayette to its first national football championship, an honor he would, himself, bestow upon his team some 37 years after the fact.
The biggest win of the 1896 season came in
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 ...
against
Penn on October 24.
A standout for Lafayette was a newcomer named
Fielding "Hurry Up" Yost.
Yost began playing football at
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...
in 1894 at the age of 23.
[Maramba, Kris Wise, "Fielding Yost, another son of Marion County, excelled with Wolverines"]
'' Charleston Daily Mail'', December 18, 2007 A 6-foot, 200-pounder, Yost was a star tackle at WVU into the 1896 season. But after his team lost three times to
Lafayette in home games played on three different fields over the course of three days,
Yost became a remarkable personification of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." He transferred in mid-season to join what would be Coach Davis' national championship team.
True to his nickname, just a week after playing ''against'' Davis in West Virginia, "Hurry Up" was playing ''for'' Davis in Lafayette's historic 6–4 win over the Quakers.
The fortuitous timing of Yost's appearance on the Lafayette roster did not go unnoticed by Penn officials. They called it "the Yost affair." The
Philadelphia ''Ledger'' quoted Yost as saying that he came to Lafayette only to play football. The fact that Yost appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once... in the Penn game… and that he returned to West Virginia within two weeks of the contest... did not help appearances.
Yost assured all concerned that he would return to Lafayette for at least three years of study. But 1897 found "Hurry Up" no longer a student or a player, but a coach at
Ohio Wesleyan
Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Central Ohio residents as a nonsec ...
. In 1901, he was hired as head coach at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, beginning a storied 25-year,
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
career.
Attorney
After concluding his own six-year career as a football coach, Davis became an attorney in
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...
, where Lafayette is located. He lived there the rest of his life.
In the October 1900 meeting of the Lafayette Democratic Club, Davis was the "orator of the evening," after the group unanimously endorsed the national ticket of
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
.
["Democratic Club.", ''The Lafayette'', page 43, October 19, 1900]
/ref> In 1901, he won election as District Attorney of Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Northampton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951. Its county seat is Easton. The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was Northamptonshire, En ...
, of which Easton is the county seat.
He became such a part of Easton and the college that he was proclaimed a "loyal son of Lafayette" after giving a speech in 1901 urging on the football team before its game with Princeton, his own alma mater.
The "ex-coach and loyal supporter of athletics of Lafayette" served as an umpire in football games and as starter at the college's track meets.
Football historian and rules committee member
Davis wrote an early history of American football in 1911, tracing the sport's origins to ancient times:
...abundant evidence may be marshalled to prove that this is the oldest outdoor game in existence. In the 22nd chapter of Isaiah is found the verse, "He will turn and toss thee like a ball." This allusion, slight as it may be, is sufficient unto the antiquary to indicate that some sort of game with a ball existed as early as 750 years before the Christian era, the epoch customarily assigned to the Book of Isaiah.
An acknowledged expert on the formative years of the sport in the 19th century, Davis described the period between 1869 and 1875 as the Pioneer Period; the years 1876–93 he called the period of the American Intercollegiate Football Association; and the years 1894–1933 he dubbed the Period of Rules Committees and Conferences.
He helped select the 1913 College Football All-America Team
The 1913 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans for the 1913 college football season. The only two selectors who have been recognized as "official" selectors by the National Co ...
while serving as Princeton's representative on the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee.
He served on the Rules Committee from 1909 to 1915, playing a key role in shaping the evolution of the game. Among the innovations with which he is credited are the division of the game into quarters, numbering of players, abolition of inter-locked interference and the creation of end zones.Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, "Parke Davis Dies After Fine Career", ''Ogden Standard-Examiner
The ''Standard-Examiner'' is a daily morning newspaper published in Ogden, Utah, United States. With roughly 30,000 subscribers on Sunday and 25,000 daily, it is the third largest daily newspaper in terms of circulation in Utah, after '' The S ...
'', June 6, 1934
Even after leaving the Rules Committee, Davis promoted his ideas for improving the sport, which included making it illegal to advance a recovered fumble:
This feature of football is uncouth, unfair and a relic of a long bygone era... The proper disposition of this fluke play is to change the rules so that the ball shall be put down for scrimmage at the point where a fumble is recovered by the side recovering the fumble and no run allowed. If the fumble is recovered behind an opponent's goal line the ball shall be put in play at the point where it was fumbled.
Davis was a friend and admirer of Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...
, "Father of American Football." In a 1926 authorized biography of Camp, author Harford Powel, Jr. turned to Davis for historical perspective, including accounts of Camp's "heavy disappointments (which) should be mentioned, for fear it might be thought that Camp was one of those players who do not know the feeling of failure."
He reviewed the sport's first half-century in "Fifty Years of Intercollegiate Football," which appeared in the 1926 edition of ''Spalding's Official Football Guide''. Davis' description of football's earliest years paint an image of a sport very different from the game as it became known in the 20th century:
The tactics of the times made the play essentially a kicking game. The backs kicked punts, drop kicks, and place kicks... Not only was the ball kicked as at present, but it was kicked, and cleverly kicked, while bouncing upon the ground.
The game was opened, as now, by a kick-off. The player of 1880 might, if he chose, drive the ball far down the field. Or, technically kicking the ball by merely touching it with his toe, he might pick it up and run with it. Players when tackled invariably endeavored to pass the ball back to another member of their side for a further advance, a method of play so highly developed that it was not infrequent to see a ball passed as many as five times during a single play.
In addition to his work on the ''Guide'', Davis authored articles on football for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' and compiled
a glossary of football terms.
Dan Jenkins reported in the September 11, 1967, edition of ''Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', "Davis went all the way back to the first inflated pig bladder to pick the national champions for every season. He used no special formula. He simply looked at the schedules and the results and chose his teams."
Davis' list was titled "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" and compiled for the seasons from 1869–1933. In all, he selected 94 teams over 61 seasons as "National Champion Foot Ball Teams". For 21 of these teams (at 12 schools), he was the only major selector to choose them. Their schools use 17 of Davis' singular selections to claim national titles. Davis died months after his selection of the national champion 1933 teams for the 1934 ''Guide''.
For the 1896 season, Davis selected his own team and his alma mater to share the title. Lafayette and Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
had fought to a 0–0 stalemate early in the season.
In addition to naming each year's champion, Davis added statistics from the 1873 through the 1933 seasons to his annual ''Guide''. These included the longest scoring plays from rushing, returns, passing plays and interceptions.[Noel, Tex, "History of Annual Association's College Football Records Books", ''1st-N-Goal for Past Times Sports'', May–June 2007]
/ref> The 1934 edition was Davis' last to include these compilations, as he died soon after its completion. Through the 1937 edition, the records were included with the notation, "Compilations of the late Parke H. Davis."
Davis also named an All-Time All-America football team in 1931.
"Parke Davis Day"
Davis' health may have been a concern in the spring of 1934.
Princeton announced that it was inviting the sporting world to honor its famous alum on "Parke Davis Day," which was set for the following October 13. As ''The Lafayette'' reported:
The purpose of this event will be to commemorate the long and faithful services which Mr. Davis has given to football. Mr. Davis, a graduate of Princeton, came to Lafayette in 1895. He raised the Maroon from a position of obscurity to a level with the football giants... Lafayette owes much to Parke Davis and should contribute something to this event which is being held in his honor.
But within weeks of the announcement... and months before "Parke Davis Day" was to be held... the honoree was dead.
Rather than attending the planned celebration in New Jersey, "(c)ollege associates, former football stars and members of the bench and bar were among the friends," who arrived in Easton as mourners for June 8 funeral services held at Davis' home. They included Congressman Abram Andrew and legendary Wisconsin coach Phil King, both former teammates at Princeton, and fellow football historian and Princeton grad William H. Edwards.
National championship selections
The 1934 edition of ''Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide'' contains the chapter National Champion Foot Ball Teams, 1869–1933. The list is marked as being "Compiled by Parke H. Davis".
The official NCAA records book credits Davis with retroactive selections for the years 1869–1932, and with a contemporary selection of co-champions for the just-completed 1933 season. He is the only major selector indicated as using historic research for his selections rather than a poll or mathematical system (although Bill Schroeder of the Helms Athletic Foundation
The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
did as well).
Critics have faulted his work for having a heavy Eastern bias, with little regard for the South and the West Coast.
Posthumous selections for 1934 and 1935
Davis died mere weeks after completing his compilations for the 1934 Spalding guide. The printed book contains an obituary and tribute to "the game's foremost historian".
Davis' national champions list was subsequently reprinted in the 1935 and 1936 editions of the Spalding guide. The title of the chapter was changed to Outstanding Nationwide and Sectional Teams, and the byline
The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's D ...
to "Originally Compiled by the late Parke H. Davis". Each edition adds new co-champions for the just-completed season.
These new champions, who played their seasons after his death, were ''not'' selected by Parke H. Davis but are commonly attributed to him.[ The NCAA does not include the 1934 or 1935 selections in their list of picks by "major selectors".]
Head coaching record
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Parke H.
1871 births
1934 deaths
19th-century players of American football
American football ends
American football tackles
Amherst Mammoths football coaches
Lafayette Leopards football coaches
Princeton Tigers football players
Wisconsin Badgers football coaches
Pennsylvania lawyers
Sportspeople from Jamestown, New York
Sportspeople from Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania
Players of American football from Pennsylvania
College football championships