Tommy Spence

Tommy Spence
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Position Fullback
Class Graduate
Career history
College Georgia Tech (1914–1916)
Personal information
Date of birth April 17, 1896
Place of birth Thomasville, Georgia
Date of death November 27, 1918 (aged 22)
Place of death France
Career highlights and awards

Thomas Louis "Tommy" Spence (April 17, 1896 – November 27, 1918) was a college football player. Spence also played on the baseball, basketball, and track teams.[1]

Georgia Tech

Football

Spence was a prominent fullback for John Heisman's Georgia Tech Golden Tornado of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was posthumously elected to the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1976.[2]

1916

Spence was a starter for the 1916 Georgia Tech team which, as one writer wrote, "seemed to personify Heisman."[3] In Georgia Tech's record-setting 222-0 win over Cumberland College in 1916, Spence scored the second-most behind Everett Strupper when he netted five touchdowns.[4] He was selected All-Southern that season.[5] Walter Camp gave him honorable mention.

First World War

Spence was a casualty of the First World War.[6] He is the namesake of Spence Air Base.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas Spence Killed In Airplane Accident". The Gazette Times. December 18, 1918.
  2. ↑ "Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame".
  3. ↑ Heisman, John M. Heisman: The Man Behind the Trophy. p. 144.
  4. ↑ "A Monumental Victory". October 6, 2006.
  5. ↑ Intercollegiate Athletic Calendar 1. p. 167.
  6. ↑ Wiley Lee Umphlett. Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. p. 141.
  7. ↑ "Spence Air Base".

External links