Frank Hinkey

Frank Augustus Hinkey (December 23, 1871 – December 30, 1925) was an American football player. He was notable for being one of only three college football players in history to be named a four-time All-America. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

Born in Tonawanda, New York, he attended DeVeaux College and Phillips Andover. He graduated from Yale University in 1895 and was a member of Skull and Bones. While at Yale he played football all four years, was captain his junior and senior years, and each year was named to the College Football All-America Team.^[1]

He ran several businesses, including zinc smelting plants in Kansas and Illinois, and worked with fellow Yale teammate and All-American Frank Butterworth at a brokerage. He was head coach of the Yale team from 1913 to 1914.^[1] During those two seasons, he had an 11-7 record.^[2]

According to Dr. Harry March's, often inaccurate book Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs, Hinkey was a referee at the 1903 World Series of Football held at Madison Square Garden. March states that the officials during the series "were dressed in full evening dress, from top hats down to white gloves and patent leather shoes." During the last play of the series in a game between the Franklin Athletic Club and the Watertown Red & Black, the Franklin players, knew that they had the game in hand. As a result, the Franklin backfield agreed to purposely run over the clean and sharply dressed Hinkley in jest, knocking him into the dirt. Hinkley took the incident in good-nature and Franklin's management agreed to pay his cleaning bill.

He died from complications of tuberculosis on December 30, 1925. He was 54 years old.

References

• Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511913-4. http://books.google.com/?id=rCnbhSRZpgIC.