William Ewing Beard (July 12, 1873 – December 21, 1950) was a

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 ...

player, soldier, journalist, war correspondent, naval historian, and long-time officer of the

Tennessee Historical Commission The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for the U.S. state of Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, it is an independent state agency, administratively attached to the Department of Environment and Co ...

and member of the

Tennessee Historical Society The Tennessee Historical Society is a historical society for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was established in 1849. Its founding president from 1849 to 1856 was Nathaniel Cross, a Princeton-educated professor of Ancient Languages at the Universi ...

. He wrote several books on

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

and dubbed

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

the ''

Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...

''.

Early years

Beard was born on July 12, 1873, in

Estill Springs, Tennessee Estill Springs is a town in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,267 at the 2020 census. It is usually referred to simply as "Estill" by its inhabitants. Estill Springs is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee, Micropolita ...

, to Richard Beard, a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

captain, and Marie Dromgoole, of

. He attended Vanderbilt from 1890 to 1893. In 1892 Beard was the first Vanderbilt

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 ...

to play

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Writer

Beard joined the staff of the ''Nashville American'' in 1896. In 1897 he was the first to dub Vanderbilt the Commodores. While at the ''American'', Beard employed former Vandy player Bob Blake. Beard became the state news editor of the ''Banner'' in 1910, promoted to associated editor in 1933.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beard, William E. 1873 births 1950 deaths American football quarterbacks Vanderbilt Commodores football players Players of American football from Tennessee Naval historians American male journalists 19th-century players of American football People from Franklin County, Tennessee