Samuel Stephen Cooke Sr. (August 7, 1879 – May 28, 1944) was an American college football coach. He served as the head football coach at Maryland Agricultural College—now known as the

University of Maryland, College Park 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 ...

—in 1899, compiling a record of 1–4.

Biography

A native of

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper ...

, Cooke enrolled at the Maryland Agricultural College (now the University of Maryland) in 1897.Alumni record of the Maryland Agricultural College: 1914
p. 77, Maryland Agricultural College, 1914. He played on the

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-s ...

from 1897 to 1899 as a fullback. In the 1898 game against

Western Maryland upright=1.2, An enlargeable map of Maryland's 23 counties and one independent city Western Maryland, also known as the Maryland Panhandle, is the portion of the U.S. state of Maryland that typically consists of Washington, Allegany, and Garre ...

, Cooke performed the dubious feat of kicking a punt from midfield over his head and backwards 25 yards. The opponent scored a

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 Amer ...

shortly thereafter. The following season, the team elected Cooke as captain, but he suffered a broken arm in the first game against Western Maryland. By Thanksgiving, he returned to the sport, playing for the Hyattsville town team.Bealle, p. 36. Cooke left the college before graduating and went to work for the

Potomac Electric Power Company The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C. and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

He married Mary née Ward on March 28, 1910.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, S. M. 1879 births 1944 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football fullbacks Player-coaches Maryland Terrapins football coaches Maryland Terrapins football players People from Hyattsville, Maryland Coaches of American football from Maryland Players of American football from Maryland