Bob Blake (American football)

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Bob Blake
Bobblake4.png
Blake, c. 1903
Vanderbilt Commodores
Position End
Major Law
Career history
College Vanderbilt (1903, 1905–1907)
Personal information
Date of birth (1885-01-31)January 31, 1885
Place of birth Cuero, Texas
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Place of death St. Louis, Missouri
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Career highlights and awards

Robert Edwin "Bob" Blake (January 31, 1885 – May 8, 1962) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player for the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University. Every football season in which he played, Blake was unanimously selected All-Southern and a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship team. His three brothers, Dan, Vaughn, and Frank, also played on those winning teams. Dan, Bob, and Vaughn were captains of the 1906, 1907, and 1908 Vanderbilt football teams respectively. He thus signed letters "Bob Blake, pater familias."[1] He was a lawyer and Rhodes Scholar.[2]

Early years

Blake was born on January 31, 1885 in Cuero, Texas to Daniel Bigelow Blake, Sr. and Mary Clara Weldon. Dan, Sr. was a physician and once president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine.[3]

Vanderbilt University

The Blake brothers of Vanderbilt. Bob is second from left.

Blake was Vanderbilt University’s first athlete to earn 16 letters,[4] participating in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He stood 6 feet and weighed 170 pounds.[5]

Football

Blake was a prominent end for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt Commodores football teams in 1903 and from 1905 to 1907. He was also a punter and drop kicker. As a punter, one writer claimed others considered him "the best in the country."[6] He was selected All-Southern unanimously each and every year he played, and Vanderbilt won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) championship in all of his years.

A fellow student at Vanderbilt once said of Blake "He is an athlete and this has been one great factor in making him popular, but Bob Blake would have been a popular man if he had not been an athlete. In the third place he is interested in and takes an active part in every phase of college life. In the fourth place he has maintained himself well in scholarship, while not a brilliant student, he has, in my opinion, made a record above that of the average student."[3] In the opinion of fellow Vanderbilt player Honus Craig, Blake was the South's greatest player.[7] Blake was chosen for an all-time Vandy team in 1912,[8] and for an Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era.[9]

1903

Blake cropped from 1903 team picture.

Both Blake and teammate John J. Tigert were Rhodes Scholars. Blake broke his wrist in the Sewanee–Vanderbilt game.[10]

1904

Bob Blake did not play in Dan McGugin's first year of 1904.

1906

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See also: 1906 Carlisle vs. Vanderbilt football game

Vanderbilt won a major intersectional contest in 1906 when it defeated Carlisle by a single, 17-yard Blake drop kick,[6] "the crowning feat of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association season."[7][11] The score was 4 to 0, as field goals then counted for 4 points. College Football Hall of Fame inductee Albert Exendine was playing for Carlisle. Frank Mount Pleasant missed four field goals.[6]

1907

Fielding Yost (pictured) selected Blake first-team All-American.

He made Walter Camp's All-America Honorable Mention in 1907, as well as the first team All-American selection of Michigan coach Fielding Yost. Blake was a member of Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt football teams. Blake threw the pass to Stein Stone on a trick double-pass play which set up the score to beat Sewanee in 1907 for the SIAA championship, which was cited by Grantland Rice as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.[12][13] Blake missed two kicks on a slippery field in the 8–0 loss to Michigan.[14]

Blake was honored as Bachelor of Ugliness.

Coaching

Gordon Institute

He assisted his brother Frank Blake in coaching at Gordon Institute in 1907.[15]

Return to Vanderbilt

In 1910, Blake was awarded a law degree and returned to Vanderbilt for one season as an assistant football coach for Dan McGugin.[4] The 1910 team shocked defending national champion Yale with a scoreless tie.[16]

Montgomery Bell

He coached at Montgomery Bell Academy in 1912.[17]

See also

References

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