A. H. Douglas
| Navy Midshipmen | |
|---|---|
| Position | Running back |
| Class | Graduate |
| Career history | |
| College | |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | February 8, 1885 |
| Place of birth | Bennettsville, South Carolina |
| Date of death | December 21, 1972 (aged 87) |
| Place of death | Newport, Rhode Island |
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
Archibald Hugh "Toots" "Tootsie" Douglas (February 8, 1885 – December 12, 1972) was a college football and baseball player and distinguished veteran of World War II.
Douglas was born on February 8, 1885 in Bennettsville, South Carolina but grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Archibald J. Douglas and Nan Harlan.
Douglas was once a prominent running back for the Tennessee Volunteers football teams of the University of Tennessee.
The 1902 Volunteers won a school record six games and beat rivals Sewanee and Georgia Tech. 1902 was also the first time that Tennessee scored on Vanderbilt in their Rivalry game. The team closed the season with an 11 to 0 loss to John Heisman's Clemson Tigers. Douglas holds the record for the longest punt in school history when he punted a ball 109 yards (the field length was 110 yards in those days) during the Clemson game. Heisman described the kick:
The day was bitterly cold and a veritable typhoon was blowing straight down the field from one end to the other. We rushed the ball with more consistency than Tennessee, but throughout the entire first half they held us because of the superb punting of "Toots" Douglas, especially because, in that period he had the gale squarely with him. Going against that blizzard our labors were like unto those of Tantalus. Slowly, with infinite pains and a maximum of exertion, we pushed the ball from our territory to their 10-yard line. We figured we had another down to draw on, but the referee begged to differ. He handed the ball to Tennessee and the "tornado." Their general cheerfully chirped a signal – Saxe Crawford, it must have been –; and "Toots" with sprightly step, dropped back for another of his Milky Way punts. I visualize him still, standing on his own goal line and squarely between his uprights. One quick glance he cast overhead– no doubt to make sure that howling was still the same old hurricane.
...
Wikipedia