Johnny Poe

John Prentiss Poe Jr. (February 26, 1874 – September 25, 1915) was an American

Edgar A. Poe, was captain of the football team, and later served as Attorney General of Maryland, like his father. The fourth son, Neilson Poe, also played halfback. Fifth son, Arthur Poe, was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969. Finally, the sixth son, Gresham Poe, played quarterback, and followed Johnny as head coach at Virginia.^[3]

College football career

Poe enrolled at

He re-enrolled the following Fall, and started at quarterback, moving to halfback midway through the season. Poe played even better than in his freshman year, finishing second on the team for touchdowns scored. However, he was once again forced to leave the university for scholastic reasons.^[5]

After leaving Princeton, Poe bounced around, coaching two seasons at Virginia, working for a steamboat operator, selling real estate, coaching the Navy football team, and serving as an assistant coach at Princeton. Poe would often return to Princeton as an assistant coach, including the National Championship season of 1903. It was while serving as an assistant coach that Poe is credited with saying "If you won't be beat, you can't be beat," which became the team motto for many seasons.^[6][7]

Soldier, adventurer

Poe enlisted in the

In 1903, Poe joined the Kentucky National Guard, his detachment of which was sent to Princeton, Kentucky, to suppress uprisings which led to the "Black Patch Wars". Later that year, he wrote to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, volunteering his services in the looming Panamanian revolution. He was enlisted and sailed for Panama aboard the USS Dixie, but saw no action, and he returned to the United States. There, he engaged briefly in the coal-mining business in Charleston, West Virginia, before moving to Tonopah, Nevada, to engage in silver mining there.^[6][10]

Hearing that war was breaking out between

Within days of Britain's entry into World War I, Poe volunteered for the British Army and was assigned to the Royal Garrison Artillery, where he served in France for the remainder of 1914 and the first part of 1915. By then he had decided that artillery was too far behind the lines, and had himself transferred to the Black Watch, a famous Scottish infantry regiment, known to the Germans as the "Ladies from Hell" for the kilts they wore and their ferocity.^[13]

In the opening hours of the Battle of Loos, on the morning of September 25, 1915, Poe was with a detachment carrying bombs to another regiment and was part way across an open field, when he was struck in the stomach by a bullet and killed. He was later buried there, between the German and British lines. However, his friends and relatives were never able to locate his grave.^[14][15]

Legacy

Poe's name was entered into the Black Watch roll of honor at Edinburgh Castle. At Princeton, Poe field was named in his honor. Given annually and established by Poe's mother, the "John Prentiss Poe, Jr. Memorial Football Cup" (presently known as the Poe-Kazmaier Trophy) is the highest award given to a Princeton football player.

Head coaching record

References

Footnotes

Sources

• "Ex-Football Hero In War" (PDF). The New York Times. May 7, 1907. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
• "'Johnny' Poe Killed Fighting in France" (PDF). The New York Times. October 30, 1915. Retrieved March 11, 2008.
• "Poe is on the Dixie Sailing to Panama". The Washington Times. December 28, 1903. p. 2. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
• "Soldier of Fortune". Washington Bee. October 5, 1907. p. 7. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
• "Transport Arrives From Philippines" (PDF). The New York Times. December 2, 1901. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
• Bernstein, Mark F. (September 10, 2003). "A Princeton hero's search for meaning". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved March 11, 2008.
• Edwards, William H. (1916). Football Days – Memories of the Game and of the Men Behind the Ball (PDF). Moffat, Yard & Company. p. 418. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
• Imbrie, Andrew Clerk, ed. (1905). The Class of 1895 Princeton University Decennial Record, 1895–1905 (PDF). pp. 322–327 & 488–489. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
• Morse, Edwin W. (1918). "John P. Poe of the First Black Watch". The Vanguard of American Volunteers in the Fighting Lines and in Humanitarian Service August, 1914 – April, 1917 (PDF). Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 75–82. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
• Porter, David L., ed. (1987). Biographical Dictionary of American Sports – Football.
  ISBN 0-313-25771-X
  .
• Presbrey, Frank; Moffatt, James Hugh (1901). Athletics at Princeton – A History (PDF). Frank Presbrey Co. pp. 341–354. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
• Street, Julian (1917). "The Story of 'Johnnie' Poe". In Charles Hanson Towne (ed.). For France (PDF). Doubleday, Page & Co. pp. 116–121. Retrieved February 25, 2008.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johnny Poe.

• Johnny Poe at Find a Grave