Aubrey Falls "Laney" Lanier (February 18, 1888 – April 25, 1936) was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

player.

Early years

Aubrey was born on February 18, 1888, in the city of Butler in Lonoke County, Arkansas, to Isaac Hill Lanier and Mary "Ellen" Cooper.

Sewanee

He was a halfback for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee: The University of the South from

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

, thrice selected All-Southern. Vanderbilt head coach Dan McGugin rated him as one of the greatest he ever saw.

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an American sportswriter and poet known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you playe ...

rated him amongst the best ever at punt returns. He would catch punts whilst running at full speed. An all-time Sewanee team noted "Critics declare Aubrey Lanier the equal of Walter Eckersall as a safety man." In 1915,

John Heisman John William Heisman ( ; October 23, 1869 – October 3, 1936) was a player and coach of American football, baseball, and basketball, as well as a sportswriter and actor. He served as the head football coach at Oberlin College, Buchtel College ...

selected the 30 greatest Southern football players, and mentioned Lanier 21st.

1907

McGugin said of Lanier in 1907 that he was "a star of purest ray, and came near winning the Vanderbilt game by his brilliant dashes after receiving punts."

1909

In 1909 when Sewanee won an SIAA championship Rice called him "the noblest Tiger of them all." The ''Kappa Alpha Journal'' gives similar praise that year, calling Lanier "The greatest performer of the college game on the Southern field.

1910

Lanier was

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the 1910 Sewanee team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanier, Aubrey 1888 births 1936 deaths American football halfbacks Sewanee Tigers football players All-Southern college football players Players of American football from Arkansas People from Lonoke County, Arkansas