Eddie Mahan
 |
|
| Harvard Crimson | |
|---|---|
| Position | Halfback |
| Career history | |
| College | Harvard (1913–1915) |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | January 19, 1892 |
| Place of birth | Natick, Massachusetts |
| Date of death | July 22, 1975 (aged 83) |
| Place of death | Natick, Massachusetts |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 171 lb (78 kg) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
| College Football Hall of Fame (1951) | |
Edward William "Eddie" Mahan (January 19, 1892 – July 22, 1975) was an American football player. While playing halfback for Harvard, Mahan was selected as a first-team All-American three consecutive years from 1913–1915. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest football players in the first 50 years of the sport and was named by Jim Thorpe as the greatest football player of all time. In 1951, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the first group of inductees.
Mahan was a native of Natick, Massachusetts. He was of Irish ancestry and reportedly spoke with "the brogue of a full-blooded native of Erin." Mahan first gained attention for his football skills while playing at Andover. Mahan later recalled his days at Andover, "Well do I recall those wonderful days at Andover and the games between Andover and Exeter. There is intense rivalry between these two schools. Many are the traditions at Andover."
Mahan enrolled at Harvard in 1912 and played halfback for Harvard's varsity football team. Although he weighed only 165 pounds, Mahan played every minute of every football game for Harvard from 1913–1915. Mahan was selected as a first-team All-American in each of those years, leading Harvard to a three-year record of 24-1-2.
Mahan played his first varsity game for Harvard in 1913 against the University of Maine and scored two touchdowns, including a 67-yard run. And in the 1915 Harvard-Princeton game, he threw a pass for a 61-yard gain on a fake punt.
As a senior and team captain in 1915, Mahan climaxed his college football career by scoring four touchdowns and kicking five extra points in a 41-0 win over Yale, the worst defeat in Yale's 44 years of college football to that time. In the biography of Mahan at the College Football Hall of Fame, it is said that Mahan electrified the crowd in the 1915 Harvard-Yale game with "one of the greatest individual performances of the game's Pioneer Era."
...
Wikipedia