Walter Shurts Horton was an American football

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...

 player and lawyer. A native of Delavan, Illinois

Delavan, Illinois

Delavan is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,825 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Government:...

, Horton attended Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and graduated in 1879. He subsequently studied law at 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...

, graduating from the Department of Law in 1882. While attending Michigan, Horton played college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

. He played at the halfback

Halfback (American football)

A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...

 position for the 1880 team and was the team captain and quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 for the 1881 Michigan Wolverines football team

1881 Michigan Wolverines football team

The 1881 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1881 college football season. While the University of Michigan had fielded "football" teams in 1879 and 1880, those teams played a game that was more in line with traditional rugby, and many consider the 1881...

. He was a prominent attorney in Illinois for some 50 years. He was a delegate from Illinois to the 1908 Republican National Convention

1908 Republican National Convention

The 1908 Republican National Convention, the fourteenth presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States, was held in Chicago Coliseum, Chicago, Illinois on June 16 to June 19, 1908. It convened to nominate a successor to the popular GOP President, Theodore Roosevelt...

. From 1909 to 1928, he was the general counsel in Chicago for the Illinois Central Railroad

Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...

. He died in March 1944 at age 86 in Peoria, Illinois

Peoria, Illinois

Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...

. He was survived by two sons, Eugene Horton and Walter C. Horton.