Phillip Stillman

Phillip Stillman

1894 Mayo Cut football card
Yale Bulldogs
Position Center
Class Graduate
Career history
College Yale (1892–1894)
Personal information
Date of birth August 13, 1873
Place of birth Brooklyn, New York
Date of death October 16, 1939 (aged 66)
Place of death New York, New York
Career highlights and awards
Consensus All-American (1894)

Phillip Tracy "P.T." Stillman[1][2] (August 13, 1873 – October 16, 1939) was an American football player and insurance executive. He played for the undefeated 1894 Yale Bulldogs football team and was selected as the consensus first-team center on the 1894 College Football All-America Team. He later became president of F. W. Stillman Company, an insurance brokerage company founded by his father.

Early years

Stillman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1873.[3] He grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey.[4] His parents, Franklin W. and Olive Stillman, were both natives of New York. His father was employed in the insurance business.[3][5] Stillman ended preparatory school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire.[3][6]

Yale

Stillman from Yale's 1895 senior class book

Stillman enrolled at Yale College in approximately 1892 as a transfer student for his junior year.[1][2][7] He played for three years on the Yale Bulldogs football team.[6] He was the center on the 1894 Yale Bulldogs football team that compiled a 16–0 record and was retroactively named co-national champions by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis.[8] At the end of the 1894 season, Stillman was a consensus choice as a first-team player on the 1894 College Football All-America Team.[9] Caspar Whitney, published in Harper's Weekly magazine, and Leslie's Weekly by John D. Merrill.[10]

Stillman graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1895,[3] having studied mechanical engineering.[6] He was a member of St. Anthony Hall, Delta Phi, the Renaissance Club and the Dance Committee, and served as chairman of the supper committee.[3][4] He was also a member of the track and field team.[6] Reference to Stillman in the 1895 Yale senior class book refer to his heavy weight. Noting that Stillman claimed to trace his ancestry to Sir Francis Drake, the class book notes: "If any of P.T.'s distinguished relatives ever manage to circumnavigate him in the same time that Sir Francis did the earth, they will find themselves equally famous."[4] Also appended to his biography in the class book was this quote: "Falstaff sweats to death, And lards the lean earth as he walks along."[4]

Later years

After leaving Yale, Stillman was employed in the elevator business.[6] He also served in the New York National Guard, holding the rank of captain in the 101st Cavalry.[3]

From 1900 to 1920, Stillman lived with his parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 1900, he was employed as a shipping clerk.[11] In 1910, he was working as an automobile salesman.[12] In 1912, he was in charge of the New York office of Corbin Motor Vehicle Corporation.[6] By 1917, he had entered the insurance business and was employed by his father's company, the F. W. Stillman Co., at 80 Maiden Lane in New York City.[13] In 1920, he was vice president of his father's company,[14] and he later became president of the company after his father died.[3]

In 1930, Stillman lived in Fairfield, Connecticut.[15] He was married in October, 1934 to Helen Strong Piffard at Winter Park, Florida.[3][16] In 1935, he was living in Winter Park with his wife,[17] though he maintained his principal home in his later years at Weston, Connecticut.[3]

Stillman died in 1939 at the age of 66 at New York Hospital.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The 1895 Yale yearbook, The Yale Pot-Pourri, at page 67, references Stillman in the "Those Who Joined Us" section: "Phillip Tracy Stillman slowly ambled into the class in the fall of Junior year, as he knew a good think when he saw it."
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Yale '94 Class Book also states: "Phillip Tracy Stillman dropped into '95 S in Junior year."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 "Philip T. Stillman, Ex-Yale Athlete: Won Fame as Center on the Football Team of 1892, Which Took Every Game; Headed Insurance Firm; Succeeded His Father as President of F. W. Stillman Company; Officer in 101st Cavalry". The New York Times. October 16, 1939.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Yale '95 S. Class Book, p. 52.
  5. ↑ 1880 U.S. Census entry for Franklin W. Stillman and family. Son Phillip, age 6, born in New York. Census Place: Elizabeth, Union, New Jersey; Roll: 800; Family History Film: 1254800; Page: 292A; Enumeration District: 175; Image: 0599. Ancestry.com.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 William Usher Parsons (1912). Quindecennial Record of the Class of 1895 Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University Press. Yale University. p. 121.
  7. ↑ 1892 Yale Banner, p. 72, listing Phillip Tracy Stillman from Elizabeth, New Jersey, as a student in the Sheffield Scientific School.
  8. ↑ 1894 Yale University football scores and results. College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved on January 28, 2014.
  9. ↑ "2012 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2012. p. 4. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  10. ↑ "All-America Addendum" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. February 2001.
  11. ↑ 1900 U.S. Census entry for Phillip Stillman, born August 1873 in New York. Census Place: Elizabeth Ward 12, Union, New Jersey; Roll: 996; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0116; FHL microfilm: 1240996. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line].
  12. ↑ 1910 U.S. Census entry for Phillip T. Stillman, age 36, born in New York. Census Place: Elizabeth Ward 11, Union, New Jersey; Roll: T624_910; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0079; FHL microfilm: 1374923. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line].
  13. ↑ Draft registration card dated September 12, 1918, for Phillip Tracy Stillman, born August 13, 1873, living in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line].
  14. ↑ 1920 U.S. Census entry for Phillip T. Stillman, age 46, born in New York. Census Place: Elizabeth City Ward 11, Union, New Jersey; Roll: T625_1070; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 100; Image: 948. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line].
  15. ↑ 1930 U.S. Census entry for Phillip Stillman, age 56, born in New York, employed as insurance agent. Census Place: Weston, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 260; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0219; Image: 537.0; FHL microfilm: 2339995. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line].
  16. ↑ "Children of Franklin W. Stillman and Olive Caroline Tracy". Stillman.org. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  17. ↑ 1935 Florida Census entry for Phillip T. Stillman and Helen P. Stillman. Ancestry.com. Florida, State Census, 1867-1945 [database on-line].