Lucius Horatio Biglow

Lucius Horatio "Ray" Biglow III (often spelled Bigelow; February 28, 1885 – July 9, 1961) was an American football player and coach. He played right guard for Yale University from 1905 to 1907. He was selected as an All-American in both 1906 and 1907 and served as Yale Bulldogs football coach in 1908.

This article is about the football player. For the chemist, see Lucius A. Bigelow.
Lucius Horatio Biglow
Biographical details
Born(1885-02-28)February 28, 1885
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 9, 1961(1961-07-09) (aged 76)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Playing career
1905–1907Yale
Position(s)Tackle
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1908Yale
Head coaching record
Overall7–1–1
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
All-American, 1905
All-American, 1906
All-American, 1907

Biography

Biglow was born on February 28, 1885, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lucius Horatio Biglow II and Susan Ann (née Moser) Biglow.[1]

He was raised in Morristown, New Jersey, and attended the Lawrenceville School. He later enrolled at Yale University, where he graduated in 1908 and was a member of Skull and Bones.[2]: 209 [3]

He married Marian Chandler Yeaw; and they had one son, Lucius Horatio, Jr.[4]

College athletics
Yale versus Columbia game, held on November 1, 1908

At Yale, he was the right guard on the school's football team for three years. He also played point on the ice hockey team for two years, helping the Elis win the Intercollegiate Championship in 1908.

Biglow was selected as an All-American in 1906 and unanimously elected as the captain of Yale's 1907 championship football team.[5] He was also tapped for Yale's Skull and Bones society in 1906.[6] A November 1907 newspaper article said of Biglow:[7]

"Yale's captain is sturdy right tackle Bigelow. ... Bigelow is typically a Yale football product. During his prep school at Lawrenceville he failed to even make a place on the minor aggregation.

Biglow was also on the Yale crew one year.[8] Despite having "pulled the strongest oar in the varsity shell" during his one year competing on the crew, his parents opposed his rowing any longer.[9][10]

Career

Yale football coach

Biglow's parents wished for him to commence a business career upon his graduation in 1908, leading him to decline to follow the Yale tradition of having the football team captain return the following fall as the team's coach.[9] However, in January 1908, Yale's new football team captain Robert Burch announced that he had persuaded Biglow to return in the fall as Yale's head football coach.[11]

As Yale's coach, Biglow advocated better moral standards in college athletics:

"'The time was,' says Ray Biglow, former captain of the Yale team and now its coach, 'when the best fellow in college was he who could drink all his fellows under the table. I venture to say that two-thirds of the men on the great amateur baseball and football teams now are either out-and-out Christians or morally clean.'"[12]

Biglow served in the position as Yale's football coach for one year.[8]

US Army
Company A, 105th Machine Gun Battalion, Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, March 8, 1918

Biglow enlisted in the US Army in December, 1909, in Troop 1, Squadron A Cavalry, New York City.[13] He attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant with the 105th machine gun battalion of Squadron A in April of 1917. He was promoted to captain of Company A in 1818 and saw action in engagements at several locations in France during World War I. He was twice cited for his effective leadership, once while sustaining fire while his men were suffering losses and once for leadership and courage for pushing his machine gun squad forward in battle. He was honorably discharged in April of 1919.[14]

Law and publishing

Biglow graduated from Columbia Law school in 1911 and embarked on a career in law, upon his discharge from the US Army. He joined his father's New York publishing company L.H. Bigelow & Company, printers and publishers, and resided successively in Plainfield and Greenwich, Connecticut.[13]

Legacy

In 1912, a newspaper article on the greatest football players produced by Yale referred to the "brilliant Ray Bigelow" who was "always just a little better than anyone than any who played against him."[15] Biglow remained an active supporter of Yale football and, in 1915, created a "sensation" when he advocated hiring of Foster Sanford as the school's head football coach in a letter to the Yale Daily News.[8][16]

Biglow died after a long illness at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1961, at the age of 76.[4]

Head coaching record
Year Team Overall ConferenceStanding Bowl/playoffs
Yale Bulldogs (Independent) (1908)
1908 Yale 7–1–1
Yale: 7–1–1
Total:7–1–1

See also

References
  1. History of the class of 1908, Yale College , Volume 1. Yale University. 1908. p. 69. Retrieved April 22, 2011. Lucius Horatio Biglow, 3d, was born in Brooklyn, New York. February 28, 1885. Lucius Horatio Biglow, Jr., his father, was born in Brooklyn in 1861. Mr. Biglow is a member of L. H. Biglow & Company, printers and stationers. Mrs. Biglow's maiden name was Ada Albertine Rafferty....
  2. Fraternity, Psi Upsilon (1917). The twelfth general catalogue of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. p. 69. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  3. Millegan, Kris (2004-10-01). Fleshing Out Skull & Bones: Investigations into America's Most Powerful Secret Society. Trine Day. ISBN 978-1-937584-04-7.
  4. "Atty. Biglow Dies; Was Yale Athlete". The Hartford Courant. Jul 11, 1961. Retrieved October 24, 2010. Atty. Lucius Horatio Biglow, 76, a graduate of Yale University in 1903 and prominent Yale athlete, died Sunday at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, after a long illness. Hospitalized for the last five weeks, he had been ...
  5. "Bigelow Yale's Football Captain" (PDF). The New York Times. 1906-12-11.
  6. The American educational review, p. 1059. American Educational Co. 1906.
  7. "untitled". La Crosse Tribune. 1907-11-14.
  8. "Yale in Dire Need, Declares Bigelow, of Football Coach". Naugatuck Daily News. 1915-12-01.
  9. "Bigelow To Quit". Syracuse Herald. 1907-12-14.
  10. Halberstam, David (2012-12-18). The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-4532-9513-7.
  11. "Bigelow Will Coach Yale Football Eleven". Daily Kennebec Journal. 1908-01-30.
  12. "untitled". The Fort Wayne Sentineldate=1908-10-24.
  13. "Lucius H. Biglow Dies in Greenwich". The Courier-News. Bridgewater, New Jersey. July 10, 1961. p. 27. Retrieved 2022-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Whitney, Stanton (1923). Squadron A in the Great War, 1917-1918: Including a Narrative of the 105th M. G. Battalion. Squadron A Association. p. 103.
  15. "Yale Has Produced Noted Gridiron Heroes: Old Eli, as Cradle of College Football, Lays Claim to More Stars Than Any Other Institution of Learning". Mansfield News. 1912-11-23.
  16. "Foster Sanford Recommended as Yale 1916 Coach: Bigelow, Former Eli Captain, Urges His Appointment". Syracuse Herald. 1915-12-01.
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