Walter Ellsworth "Scrapper" Bachman Sr. (March 19, 1879 – November 11, 1958) was an American

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 and coach. A player at Lafayette College from 1899 until 1901, Bachman developed the " roving center" position for college football. He is regarded as one of the best offensive linemen in Lafayette history. In 1900 he was given second-team All-American honors by Walter Camp and was one of the first players to be given the honor from a school outside of Yale,

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 ...

, Princeton and Penn. He did also make several other All-American lists that season. In 1901, he was the fourth leading scorer for the Leopards with 25 goals from touchdowns (this was before modern scoring was implemented).

Biography

Bachman was born in 1880 and raised in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.Walter E. "Scrappy" Bachman
Lafayette Maroon Club Hall of Fame. Accessed March 14, 2011. After graduation, he served as an assistant football coach at Allegheny College in

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...

. He then served as the seventh head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies from 1905 to 1906 finishing with a record of 13–3 (). Bachman also had a career in professional football. In 1902 he played for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

of the first National Football League. After the season ended, he became a member of the " New York team" during the World Series of Football The team was heavily favored to win the 5 team tournament, and featured professional football stars Blondy Wallace, Charlie Gelbert and Ben Roller. However, the team was eliminated in the opening match in a 5–0 loss to the

Syracuse Athletic Club A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the National Football League, American Professional Football Association (no ...

. In 1906 he became a

yardmaster The yardmaster is the railroad employee in charge of the rail yard. They manage and coordinate all activities in combining rolling stocks into trains, and breaking down trains into individual railroad cars, and switching trains from track-to-trac ...

for the Lehigh Valley Railroad until his retirement in 1944. He died on November 11, 1958, at Easton Hospital in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Bachman was inducted in the Lafayette Maroon Hall of Fame in 1977.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bachman, Walter E. 1879 births 1958 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football centers Allegheny Gators football coaches Lafayette Leopards football players New York (World Series of Football) players Philadelphia Phillies (NFL) players Texas A&M Aggies football coaches All-American college football players Yardmasters People from Phillipsburg, New Jersey Coaches of American football from New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey