Charles H. Smith (American football)
Encyclopedia
Charles H. "Fatty" Smith was an American football
center
who played for the University of Michigan
Wolverines football
team in 1893 and 1894. Smith stood 5 feet, 10 inches, and weighed a hefty 230 pounds in 1893. In 1894, Smith anchored the line for one of the first great Michigan football teams. The 1894 Michigan team outscored opponents 244-84 and compiled a record of 9-1-1, including wins over Cornell University
and the University of Chicago
. Michigan's 1894 victory over Cornell marked the first victory by a Western football school against one of the Eastern football powers. Up to that point, no Western player had been selected for the annual College Football All-America Team
s selected by Eastern football authorities, Casper Whitney and Walter Camp
. Smith was the standout star of Western football in 1894, and Western football enthusiasts lobbied for Smith to be selected as an All-American. Whitney and Camp declined the suggestion, and no Western football players would be selected as All-Americans until 1898, when Clarence Herschberger
and William Cunningham
received the honors. The resistance to selecting Smith (or any other Western player) as an All-American is reflected in the following newspaper account from December 1894:
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
center
Center (American football)
Center is a position in American football and Canadian football . The center is the innermost lineman of the offensive line on a football team's offense...
who played for the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Wolverines football
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
team in 1893 and 1894. Smith stood 5 feet, 10 inches, and weighed a hefty 230 pounds in 1893. In 1894, Smith anchored the line for one of the first great Michigan football teams. The 1894 Michigan team outscored opponents 244-84 and compiled a record of 9-1-1, including wins over Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Michigan's 1894 victory over Cornell marked the first victory by a Western football school against one of the Eastern football powers. Up to that point, no Western player had been selected for the annual College Football All-America Team
College Football All-America Team
The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best American college football players at their respective positions. The original usage of the term All-America seems to have been to the 1889 College Football All-America Team selected by Casper Whitney and published in This...
s selected by Eastern football authorities, Casper Whitney and Walter Camp
Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football...
. Smith was the standout star of Western football in 1894, and Western football enthusiasts lobbied for Smith to be selected as an All-American. Whitney and Camp declined the suggestion, and no Western football players would be selected as All-Americans until 1898, when Clarence Herschberger
Clarence Herschberger
Clarence B. "Herschie" Herschberger was an American football fullback, punter and placekicker. He played for the University of Chicago from 1896–1898 and became the first western player to be selected as a first-team All-American in 1898...
and William Cunningham
William Cunningham (American football)
William Ralph Cunningham was an All-American football center for the University of Michigan Wolverines.Cunningham was born at Volant, Pennsylvania in July 1872...
received the honors. The resistance to selecting Smith (or any other Western player) as an All-American is reflected in the following newspaper account from December 1894:
"Some of the western colleges have developed great players on their teams and this year may claim for them a position on the All American team. Notably the University of Michigan claims for their center 'Fatty' Smith the supremacy in his position. But the western institutions have not yet mastered the eastern knowledge of all the details and fine points of the game. Smith has made a great record against the west and even against Cornell, but the Ithacan center was not a master of his position. When brought to face a man like the Stillman of today or the Bulliet of last year, Smith would simply be lost and entirely out generaled. So it would be with all of the claimants for line positions from western teams. And no one claims for a moment that western back field men could play in the same class with eastern men."