Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

George Washington Woodruff

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Sport(s)
  
Football

1905
  
Carlisle Indian

Political party
  
Republican Party

1903
  
Illinois

Role
  
American football player


1892–1901
  
Penn

Name
  
George Woodruff

1885–1888
  
Yale

Overall
  
142–25–2

Positions
  
Guard

George Washington Woodruff wwwfootballfoundationorgPortals7nffimageHOF

Born
  
February 22, 1864 Dimock, Pennsylvania (
1864-02-22
)

Died
  
March 24, 1934, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States

George Washington Woodruff (February 22, 1864 – March 24, 1934) was an American football player, rower, coach, teacher, lawyer and politician. He served as the head football coach at the University of Pennsylvania (1892–1901), the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1903), and Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1905), compiling a career college football record of 142–25–2. Woodruff's Penn teams of 1894, 1895, and 1897 have been recognized as national champions. Woodruff was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1963.

Contents

Playing career and education

Woodruff graduated from Yale University in 1889, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, and the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his LL.B. law degree in 1895. His football teammates at Yale included Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pudge Heffelfinger, and Pa Corbin.

Coaching career

At Penn, Woodruff coached Truxtun Hare, Carl Sheldon Williams, John H. Outland, his brother Wylie G. Woodruff, and Charles Gelbert. In his ten years of coaching at Penn, Woodruff compiled a 124–15–2 record while his teams scored 1777 points and only gave up 88. He also coached one year each at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Political career

After coaching, Woodruff practiced law and was active in politics as a Republican. His political posts included Finance Clerk in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Attorney General, federal judge for the territory of Hawaii, chief law officer of the US Forest Service under friend and fellow Yale alumni Gifford Pinchot, Acting Secretary of the Interior under President Theodore Roosevelt.

Football

Note: Before 1936, national champions were determined by historical research and retroactive ratings and polls.
1894 Poll Results = Penn: Parke H. Davis, Princeton: Houlgate, Yale: Billingsley, Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke H. Davis
1895 Poll Results = Penn: Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke H. Davis, Yale: Parke H. Davis
1897 Poll Results = Penn: Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke H. Davis, Yale: Parke H. Davis
George Woodruff's last game as a coach was the 1905 Carlisle-Army game after which he went to Washington for a government job. Ralph Kinney completed Carlisle's season, going 3–2 over the five games played after Woodruff's departure.

References

George Washington Woodruff Wikipedia