1859-1925
Football Coach

Father of American Football.

Walter Camp, who was associated with football at Yale University from 1876 to 1910, first as a player and then as a coach, is considered the "Father of American Football." He was the son of Leverett and Ellen Camp, and his father served as a schoolmaster in New Haven, Connecticut. After attending the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Camp enrolled at Yale University and graduated in 1880. He stayed on at Yale to study medicine for two years. In 1882 Camp started working for the Manhattan Watch Company and became president of the company in 1903. In 1888 he married Alice Graham Sumner, the sister of William Graham Sumner, an eminent Yale sociologist and outspoken proponent of social Darwinism.

Innovator.

Camp played football at Yale from 1876 to 1882, the final two years as a medical student. In 1876 he played halfback in the first Harvard-Yale game...