Percy Duncan Haughton (July 11, 1876 – October 27, 1924) 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 wi ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player and coach. He served as head football coach at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

from 1899 to 1900, at

Harvard University 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 highe ...

from 1908 to 1916, and at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

from 1923 to 1924, compiling a career

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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

record of 97–17–6. The

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than a ...

claimed national champions for three of the seasons that Haughton coached: 1910, 1912, and 1913. Haughton was also Harvard's head baseball coach in 1915 and part owner of the

Boston Braves The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

from 1916 to 1918. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...

as a coach in 1951.

Biography

Haughton was born on July 11, 1876. Haughton attended

Groton School Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...

, graduating in 1895, and then went on to

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, graduating in 1899. Haughton and his wife owned Gould Island in Rhode Island where Haughton trained the Harvard football team. Apocryphal tales assert that before the 1908 Harvard–Yale Game, Haughton strangled a bulldog in the locker room to motivate his players. He bought the

with

Arthur Chamberlin Wise Arthur Chamberlin Wise (January 6, 1876 - June 26, 1952) was a member of the Boston brokerage firm of Millet, Roe & Hagen and co-owner of the Boston Braves baseball team in 1916 with Percy Duncan Haughton. Biography He was born on January 6, 18 ...

in 1916. Haughton served as club president until the team was purchased by

George Washington Grant George Washington Grant was an American businessman who owned the Boston Braves of the National League from to . Grant was born in Cincinnati, where he worked as a paper boy, messenger, and street car conductor. One of his friends growing up was ...

in 1919. Haughton served as the head coach of

Camp Devens Fort Devens is a United States Army Reserve military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Due to extensive environmental contamination it was ...

football team in 1917. In 1918 he was commissioned as a major in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

's Chemical Warfare Service. After Haughton's military service ended, he announced he would not return to Harvard, instead focusing on his work with White Weld & Co. Haughton became Columbia's football coach in spring 1923 as the school re-established a team that had been dissolved in 1905 following allegations that football had become too violent. To alleviate concerns that the game was still too violent, Haughton promised to instil discipline in his players, saying: "It will be my purpose to teach the men what they should learn in order to better prepare for life after the university. If I can do that, if I can contribute toward qualifying them for the finest type of citizenship, I will be satisfied." Haughton died at age 48 on October 27, 1924, after becoming ill on the Columbia football field. The cause of death was classified as acute indigestion.

Head coaching record

Football

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haughton, Percy 1876 births 1924 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football tackles Boston Braves executives Boston Braves owners College Football Hall of Fame inductees Columbia Lions football coaches Cornell Big Red football coaches Harvard Crimson baseball coaches Harvard Crimson baseball players Harvard Crimson football coaches Harvard Crimson football players Players of American football from New York (state) Sportspeople from Staten Island United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War I