Bob Blake (American football)

Bob Blake

Blake, c. 1903
Vanderbilt Commodores
Position End
Major Law
Career history
College Vanderbilt (1903, 1905–1907)
Personal information
Date of birth (1885-01-31)January 31, 1885
Place of birth Cuero, Texas
Date of death May 8, 1962(1962-05-08) (aged 77)
Place of death St. Louis, Missouri
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg)
Career highlights and awards

Robert Edwin "Bob" Blake (January 31, 1885 – May 8, 1962) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player for the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University. Every football season in which he played, Blake was unanimously selected All-Southern and a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship team. His three brothers, Dan, Vaughn, and Frank, also played on those winning teams. Dan, Bob, and Vaughn were captains of the 1906, 1907, and 1908 Vanderbilt football teams respectively. He thus signed letters "Bob Blake, pater familias."[1] He was a lawyer and Rhodes Scholar.[2]

Early years

Blake was born on January 31, 1885 in Cuero, Texas to Daniel Bigelow Blake, Sr. and Mary Clara Weldon. Dan, Sr. was a physician and once president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine.[3]

Vanderbilt University

The Blake brothers of Vanderbilt. Bob is second from left.

Blake was Vanderbilt University’s first athlete to earn 16 letters,[4] participating in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He stood 6 feet and weighed 170 pounds.[5]

Football

Blake was a prominent end for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt Commodores football teams in 1903 and from 1905 to 1907. He was also a punter and drop kicker. As a punter, one writer claimed others considered him "the best in the country."[6] He was selected All-Southern unanimously each and every year he played, and Vanderbilt won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship in all of his years.

A fellow student at Vanderbilt once said of Blake "He is an athlete and this has been one great factor in making him popular, but Bob Blake would have been a popular man if he had not been an athlete. In the third place he is interested in and takes an active part in every phase of college life. In the fourth place he has maintained himself well in scholarship, while not a brilliant student, he has, in my opinion, made a record above that of the average student."[3] In the opinion of fellow Vanderbilt player Honus Craig, Blake was the South's greatest player.[7] Blake was chosen for an all-time Vandy team in 1912,[8] and for an Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era.[9]

1903

Blake cropped from 1903 team picture.

Both Blake and teammate John J. Tigert were Rhodes Scholars. Blake broke his wrist in the Sewanee–Vanderbilt game.[10]

1904

Bob Blake did not play in Dan McGugin's first year of 1904.

1906

Vanderbilt won a major intersectional contest in 1906 when it defeated Carlisle by a single, 17-yard Blake drop kick,[6] "the crowning feat of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association season."[7][11] The score was 4 to 0, as field goals then counted for 4 points. College Football Hall of Fame inductee Albert Exendine was playing for Carlisle. Frank Mount Pleasant missed four field goals.[6]

1907

Fielding Yost (pictured) selected Blake first-team All-American.

He made Walter Camp's All-America Honorable Mention in 1907, as well as the first team All-American selection of Michigan coach Fielding Yost. Blake was a member of Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt football teams. Blake threw the pass to Stein Stone on a trick double-pass play which set up the score to beat Sewanee in 1907 for the SIAA championship, which was cited by Grantland Rice as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.[12][13] Blake missed two kicks on a slippery field in the 8–0 loss to Michigan.[14]

Bachelor of Ugliness

One of the highest honors that a student could achieve was the "Bachelor of Ugliness," a title given to the male undergraduate student believed to be most representative of ideal young manhood an the class's most popular member, devised by Professor William H. Dodd in 1885. In 1908, that honor was given to Blake.

Coaching

Gordon Institute

He assisted his brother Frank Blake in coaching at Gordon Institute in 1907.[15]

Return to Vanderbilt

In 1910, Blake was awarded a law degree and returned to Vanderbilt for one season as an assistant football coach for Dan McGugin.[4] The 1910 team shocked defending national champion Yale with a scoreless tie.[16]

Montgomery Bell

He coached at Montgomery Bell Academy in 1912.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Personal News". The American Oxonian: 114. 1915.
  2. ↑ Henry Jay Case (1914). "Vanderbilt–A University of the New South". Outing 64: 320–331.
  3. 1 2 Charles Wells Moulton (1906). "Blake, Daniel Bigelow". The Doctor's Who's Who (The Saalfield Publishing Co) 12.
  4. 1 2 Bill Traughber (November 23, 2011). "Vandy's gridiron Rhodes Scholars".
  5. ↑ "Vanderbilt". Caduceus of Kappa Sigma 20: 377.
  6. 1 2 3 "Vanderbilt Wins Game From Carlisle Indians". The Indianapolis News. November 23, 1906. p. 20. Retrieved May 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 ""Honus" Craig, All-Southern Right Halfback---He Talks". Abilene Daily Reporter. April 25, 1909.
  8. ↑ Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt University Quarterly 13. p. 56.
  9. ↑ "All-Time Football Team Lists Greats Of Past, Present". Gadsden Times. July 27, 1969.
  10. ↑ "Seventeen Were Killed On Football Field Of '03". Atlanta Constitution. November 29, 1903. p. 6. Retrieved March 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Dan McGugin (1907). "Football In Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association". The Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide: 49.
  12. ↑ "Claiming Rampant". The Miami News. February 9, 1954.
  13. ↑ "Grantland Rice Tells Of Greatest Thrill In Years Of Watching Sport". Boston Daily Globe. April 27, 1924.
  14. ↑ "Vandy Fumbles Let Michigan Kick A Victory". Atlanta Constitution. November 3, 1907. p. 1. Retrieved March 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Bob Blake Is In City". Atlanta Georgian. September 13, 1907.
  16. ↑ Traughber, Bill (November 9, 2005). "Commodores Shock Powerful Yale in 1910". Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  17. ↑ "[No title]". The Tennessean. November 9, 1912. p. 10. Retrieved September 28, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
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