Billy Suter

Early years

Suter was born on December 10, 1874 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania to Henry Suter. Henry was from Sutersville, Pennsylvania and died in 1883.

Playing years

Suter played for Washington & Jefferson and Penn State before enrolling at Princeton University. As a member of the Princeton Tigers he once ran for a 95-yard touchdown against Harvard.

Coaching career

J. G. "Lady" Jayne, coach of the 1898 Sewanee team, also a Princeton grad, was hired to coach in North Carolina. Jayne recommended Suter, with whom he had roomed at Princeton. Suter coached the famed "Iron Men" of the 1899 Sewanee Tigers which went 12–0, outscored opponents 322 to 10, and won 5 games on a 6-day road trip all by shutout. It is recalled memorably with the phrase "...and on the seventh day they rested." Grantland Rice was a shortstop on the Vanderbilt baseball team at the same time as Suter coached Sewanee. Rice praised his value as a leader, "yet he was one of the strictest disciplinarians I've ever known." Suter coached the Georgetown Hoyas for a year, going 7–3.

Officiating

Once while officiating a game between Bucknell and V. P. I. in 1906 in which Bucknell won 10 to 0, V. P. I. had an 80-yard touchdown run derailed by a holding call from Suter. Fans disagreed with the call and rushed the field after Suter, hitting Suter over the head with a cane on which was a V. P. I. flag. Players on both teams assisted Suter, and police eventually rushed in with revolvers drawn to restore order.

Publishing career

After coaching, Suter went into the publishing business. He was a publisher in Washington, D. C. for four years, then he became the publisher of the Nashville Tennessean from 1907 to 1912, where he gave Grantland Rice his first job as a sports writer. There was an interval between publishing jobs from 1915 to 1918. Suter was a book publisher in New York City during this period, and at the time of the First World War worked for the Foreign Press Cable Service Bureau of the Committee on Publish Information. Suter, former president Herbert Hoover, and others then acquired the Washington Herald at the end of 1919, for which Suter and one Walter S. Rogers was in charge until 1920. Suter throughout his life had once been publisher of the Herald, the Philadelphia Evening Times, The Elmira Advertiser and the Elmira Sunday Telegram. By 1924 he joined the New York City firm of Palmer, Suter, and Palmer which handled disposition of newspaper properties with an estimated value of $100 million.