Robert Cook Folwell Jr. (February 17, 1885 – January 8, 1928) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. He served as the head coach at Lafayette College (1909–1911),

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries t ...

(1912–1915), the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

(1916–1919), and the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

(1920–1924), compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

record of 106–29–9. Folwell then moved to the professional ranks, coaching the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) in 1925, the Philadelphia Quakers of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

in 1926, and the Atlantic City Roses of the Eastern League of Professional Football in 1927.

Early life and playing career

Folwell was born in the Mullica Hill section of

Harrison Township, New Jersey Harrison Township is a township in Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 12,417, reflecting an increase of 3,629 (+41.3%) from the 8,788 counted in the 2000 census. Har ...

in 1885. He attended Haverford Grammar School, where he made prep football All-American. He married Elizabeth Pennock in 1913 and had three sons: Robert III, George P. and William Nathan. He attended the

, where he set several school football records that stand to this day. He also starred as a wrestler. He won the Intercollegiate Wrestling Association's 175-pound title in 1907.

College coaching career

Lafayette

Folwell coached Lafayette College from 1908 through 1911, amassing a 19–2–1 record.

Washington & Jefferson

After hearing rumors that Folwell was unhappy at Lafayette, Robert "Mother" Murphy personally recruited him to coach for Washington & Jefferson College, where he coached from 1912 to 1915 and post a 36–5–3 record and was named coach of the year in 1913. In Folwell's first season, Washington & Jefferson held the legendary scorer

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

and the Carlisle Indians to a scoreless tie. In 1913, the team posted a 10–0–1 record and were the highest scoring team in the nation. That season featured a scoreless tie of

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, a 100–0 defeat of Grove City College, and a 17–0 victory over Penn State that broke the Nittany Lions' 19-game winning streak, earning the entire school a day off to celebrate. Sportswriter

Walter S. Trumbull Walter S. Trumbull (1880–1961) was an American sportswriter in the 20th century. He resided in Newtown, Connecticut. He attended Trinity College (Connecticut), Trinity College, where he excelled as a member of the football team, playing nearl ...

of ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New Yor ...

'' suggested that the Michigan Aggies, Washington & Jefferson, Chicago University, and Notre Dame were the new "Big 4 of College Football" instead of the traditional grouping of

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

, Yale,

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and Penn. Folwell's 1914 squad lost at Harvard in front of 15,000 fans by a score of 10–9. If not for an errant kick that hit the crossbar, W&J would have won the same and at least a share of the mythical national championship. That squad saved face by becoming only the seventh team to ever defeat Yale, with a decisive 13–7 victory. The game received national press coverage, and the team received a personal note of congratulations by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

Penn

Folwell then coached at

from 1916 to 1919, where he posted a 27–10–2 record. During the 1918

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

, Folwell was hospitalized for the virus.

Navy

Folwell was the 17th head football coach at the

and he held that position for five seasons, from 1920 until 1924. His coaching record with

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

was 24–12–3.

Professional coaching career and death

Folwell was the first head coach for the

of the

(NFL), in 1925. The following season he took the same position for the Philadelphia Quakers of the first American Football League and led the team to the championship of the short-lived league. He coached the Atlantic City Roses of the Eastern League of Professional Football in 1927, but was forced to retire to his farm in New Jersey after one season. A hip infection, which began while he was coaching the Philadelphia Quakers, worsened, forcing him to walk with a cane. In January 1928, he had a hip operation at

Jefferson Hospital Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Inc, branded as Jefferson Health, is a multi-state non-profit health system whose flagship hospital is Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City, Philadelphia. The health system's hospitals serve a ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. The surgery was initially successful, but he took a turn for the worse and died January 8, 1928.

Head coaching record

College

NFL

*Interim head coach

References

External links

Bob Folwell
at Pro-Football-Reference.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Folwell, Robert 1885 births 1928 deaths American football halfbacks Lafayette Leopards football coaches Navy Midshipmen football coaches New York Giants head coaches Penn Quakers football coaches Penn Quakers football players Washington & Jefferson Presidents football coaches People from Harrison Township, New Jersey People from Haverford Township, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania