Walter Ellsworth "Scrapper" Bachman Sr. (March 19, 1879 – November 11, 1958) was an American

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 ...

player and coach. A player at

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

from 1899 until 1901, Bachman developed the " roving center" position for college football. He is regarded as one of the best

offensive linemen In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

in Lafayette history. In 1900 he was given second-team All-American honors by Walter Camp and was one of the first players to be given the honor from a school outside 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and Penn. He did also make several other All-American lists that season. In 1901, he was the fourth leading scorer for the Leopards with 25 goals from

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s (this was before modern scoring was implemented).

Biography

Bachman was born in 1880 and raised in

Phillipsburg, New Jersey Phillipsburg is a town located along the Delaware River in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located across the river directly east from Easton, Pennsylvania. Phillipsburg is the most populous municipality in Warren County ...

.Walter E. "Scrappy" Bachman
Lafayette Maroon Club Hall of Fame. Accessed March 14, 2011. After graduation, he served as an assistant football coach at

Allegheny College he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת , mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) , faculty = 193 ...

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 ce ...

. He then served as the seventh head coach of the

Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname " Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Agg ...

from 1905 to 1906 finishing with a record of 13–3 (). Bachman also had a career in professional football. In 1902 he played for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

of the first National Football League. After the season ended, he became a member of the " New York team" during the

World Series of Football The World Series of Soccer was a series of club games hosted by Major League Soccer from 2005 to 2007. It was used by MLS to provide its teams with opportunities to compete against top international teams. Previous uses of name The term, World S ...

The team was heavily favored to win the 5 team tournament, and featured professional football stars

Blondy Wallace Charles Edgar "Blondy" Wallace (died March 5, 1937) was an early professional football player and later convicted criminal during the Prohibition Era. He was a 240-pound, former Walter Camp second-team All-American tackle from the University ...

Charlie Gelbert Charles Magnus Gelbert (January 26, 1906 – January 13, 1967) was a professional baseball player. He played all or part of ten seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals (1929–32 and 1935–36), Cincinnati Reds (1937), Detroi ...

and

Ben Roller Benjamin Franklin Roller (July 1, 1876 – April 19, 1933) was an American physician, a professional wrestler and a football player. Biography Early life Roller was born in Newman, Illinois. where he grew up on his family's farm. As a boy on t ...

. However, the team was eliminated in the opening match in a 5–0 loss to the

Syracuse Athletic Club A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football Le ...

. In 1906 he became a

yardmaster The yardmaster is the railroad employee in charge of the rail yard. They manage and coordinate all activities in combining rolling stocks into trains, and breaking down trains into individual railroad cars, and switching trains from track-to-trac ...

for the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, ...

until his retirement in 1944. He died on November 11, 1958, at Easton Hospital in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware Ri ...

Legacy

Bachman was inducted in the Lafayette Maroon Hall of Fame in 1977.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bachman, Walter E. 1879 births 1958 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football centers Allegheny Gators football coaches Lafayette Leopards football players New York (World Series of Football) players Philadelphia Phillies (NFL) players Texas A&M Aggies football coaches All-American college football players Yardmasters People from Phillipsburg, New Jersey Coaches of American football from New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey