| Date of birth: | January 10, 1892 |
| Place of birth: | Jersey City, New Jersey |
| Date of death: | May 10, 1982 (aged 90) |
| Place of death: | North Bellmore, New York |
| Career information | |
|---|---|
| Position(s): | T |
| College: | Army |
| Organizations | |
| College Football Hall of Fame | |
Alexander Mathias "Babe" Weyand (January 10, 1892 – May 10, 1982) was an American football player, Olympian, Army officer and sports historian. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974.
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Weyand played high school football at Jersey City High School, where he did not earn a letter in any sport.
At the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1911–1915, he starred at tackle and was the captain of the 1915 team.
Nicknamed during his "yearling" (sophomore) year at West Point "Babe" by his teammate Dwight David Eisenhower, he was described in The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation (Jenkins, S., Random House 2007) as a "tireless, one-man wrecking crew."
In 1913, Army lost one game—against Notre Dame and its legends Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais.
It was undefeated in 1914 with a 20-7 win over the Irish.
And it beat Navy in 1913, 1914 and 1915, the same years Weyand was selected to the College Football All-America Team.
After graduating from West Point, Weyand served with distinction in World War I, where he earned a Silver Star (gallantry), Purple Heart (wounded in action) and battlefield promotion to major and battalion commander.
After World War I, he placed fourth in the heavyweight Greco-Roman class in wrestling at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Due to severe hearing loss caused by frontline duty in World War I, Weyand could not serve in combat in World War II. He retired from active duty in 1946 at the rank of Colonel.
In retirement, Col. Weyand wrote a series of acclaimed sports histories, including the seminal Saga of American Football (New York: MacMillan, 1955), foreword by Grantland Rice. Sports historian John Sayle Watterson in his book College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) describes the book as follows "[s]uccinct and fast-paced, Weyand's history masterfully depicts the game's origins, its early stars and teams, the geographic expansion of football, and the changes in its rules."
In 1965, Weyand and former Delaware lacrosse coach Milton Roberts wrote The Lacrosse Story, the first full-length history of the sport of lacrosse based on nine years of research.[1]
Weyand died in 1982 and is interred next to his wife, Marie, at West Point, New York.[2]