Stanfield Wells

Stanfield Wells

Stanfield Wells became an All-American in 1910, photo c. 1911.
Michigan Wolverines
Position	End
Class	Graduate
Career history
College	Michigan
High school	Massillon Washington
Personal information
Date of birth	July 25, 1889
Date of death	August 17, 1967(1967-08-17) (aged 78)
Career highlights and awards
All-American, 1910

Stanfield McNeill Wells (July 25, 1889 – August 17, 1967) was an All-American football player for the University of Michigan Wolverines football team from 1909-1911. He was the first in a long line of All-Americans to come out of Massillon Washington High School, and was one of the pioneers of the forward pass. Though known principally as an end, Wells was Michigan's first forward passer of note. He threw two passes to help Michigan win the Western Conference championship against Minnesota in 1910. He played professional football after college and wrote a chapter of a book on playing the end position. He later became the manager of an insurance company in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wells attended Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio. He played left halfback in high school and graduated in 1907. His high school coach Fritz Merwin was a volunteer who helped the players get organized.

Massillon's Washington High School has produced more than ten All-Americans, with Wells being the first and others including Harry Stuhldreher, Ed Molinski, Lin Houston, Chris Spielman, and Coach Paul Brown. In 1964, the school honored its first ten All-Americans by creating an All-American Hall of Fame at the school. At the time of the induction ceremony, Wells (who was in his 70s) was unable to attend but wrote a letter that was published in the Massillon newspaper. In the letter, Wells recalled the early days of football in Massillon:

“The old days. After all the fall of 1906 is a far piece back, and high school football then was a mighty casual and simple thing. That was my senior year and I was a ‘new boy’, having just moved to Massillon that summer from the wide open spaces of South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska. The first day at school several of my classmates came around to suggest that of course I was coming out for football; and although I protested that I had never had a ball in my hands, they countered with the argument that I was a good sized lump of a boy and would make a fine prospect. So I promised. Well the only preparation necessary was to take an old pair of shoes down to the town cobbler and have some cleats nailed on them. I think the athletic association must have had some football pants, but I do remember distinctly that you had to furnish your own stockings (any color) and an old sweater. Put these on and you were in business. I can’t believe that there were more than 11 candidates out because I made the team the first afternoon. Nor did we have a regular coach. A boy named Fritz Merwin, who I think had played the year before was our coach. If you ask me, he’s the one whose picture ought to be hanging up around there someplace. He didn’t get paid anything, and if a coach ever had an awkward squad of 11 nit-wits, he did. But he was out there every afternoon, early and late teaching us fundamentals instead of fancy razzle-dazzle plays, and in the end it paid off because we won a few games. I can’t remember who we beat, but I do recall, painfully even after this lapse of time, that our friends over at the county seat (Canton, Ohio) took us to the cleaners twice.”