Wild Bill Claiborne

William Stirling "Wild Bill" Claiborne (December 11, 1879 – January 7, 1933) was a college football player and Episcopal archdeacon of Sewanee and East Tennessee. Before he was archdeacon, he was rector of Otey Memorial parish.[1][2]

W. S. Claiborne
Claiborne depicted c. 1900
Sewanee Tigers
PositionGuard
ClassGraduate
MajorTheology
Personal information
Born:(1872-12-11)December 11, 1872
Geddis, Amherst County, Virginia
Died:January 7, 1933(1933-01-07) (aged 60)
Florida, U.S.
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight190 lb (86 kg)
Career history
College
  • Roanoke (1891–1897)
  • Sewanee (1899–1900)
Career highlights and awards

College football

Claiborne attended Roanoke College from 1891 to 1897.[2]

Claiborne was a prominent guard for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee:The University of the South, a small Episcopal school in the mountains of Tennessee. He played on the 1899 "Iron Men" who won five road games in six days and all by shutout,[3] selected All-Southern.[4] Claiborne was blind in one eye, and used his discolored eye for purposes of intimidation on the field.[3][5][6] A documentary film about the team and Claiborne's role was released in 2022 called "Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899." [7] At Sewanee Claiborne studied theology[3] and was ordained priest in 1901.

Religious work

He was a member of the Missionary Society.[3] He was called the "apostle of the mountain folk" for his work among Tennessee mountain people.[3] He founded the St. Andrew's School for Mountain Boys, refounded St. Mary's School, founded the DuBose Memorial Training School,[8] and established Emerald-Hogston Hospital.[3] Claiborne wrote a book titled Roy in the Mountains.[3][9][10]

One description of his service in the ministry reads "eleven years ago he went into the mountains of East Tennessee and rolled up his sleeves. They are still up."[11]

References
  1. "Message from the President" (PDF). Claiborne Society Newsletter (Fall 2015). Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  2. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography ... Current Volume. J. T. White. 1927.
  3. Wendell Givens (2003). Ninety-Nine Iron: The Season Sewanee Won Five Games in Six Days. University of Alabama Press. pp. 32, 121. ISBN 9780817350628.
  4. "An All-Southern College Eleven". Orange and Blue.
  5. Richard Scott (15 September 2008). SEC Football: 75 Years of Pride and Passion. Voyageur Press. p. 22. ISBN 9781616731335.
  6. Randy Horick. "A Winner's Tale".
  7. "Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899", Wikipedia, 2023-01-23, retrieved 2023-01-31
  8. Boddie, John Bennett (June 2009). Virginia Historical Genealogies. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-0042-9.
  9. "The Literature of Missions". Forth. 81: 721. 1916.
  10. Claiborne, William Stirling (1916). Roy in the Mountains. E.S. Gorham – via Internet Archive.
  11. "The Literary Digest". Funk & Wagnalls. 6 November 2017 – via Google Books.
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