Benjamin Holt Ticknor II (January 9, 1909 – September 12, 1979) was an American

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. He was a prominent

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for the

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the college sports teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate Varsity team, varsity sports teams for women and men at Harva ...

, also known for his play on defense. Ticknor was the son of William Davis Ticknor Sr. (1881–1938) and Ella Frances Wattles (1880–1963). His grandfather was another Benjamin Holt Ticknor and his great-grandfather another William Davis Ticknor of

Ticknor and Fields Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a bookstore in 1832, the business published many 19th-century American authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Henr ...

. Ticknor 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 1930 team. He is remembered as one of Harvard's greatest athletes: two-time All-American footballer and Harvard's only member of the National Football Hall of Fame since the First World War. He was equally gifted in baseball; as a Crimson outfielder, he led the team in batting in 1930 and set Harvard's then- career home-run record (13). Ticknor won the university's Wingate Trophy (presented annually to the highest scorer in safe arrivals at first, stolen bases, sacrifice hits, and total runs) in 1930 and Wendell Bat in 1931. Harvard football did not see its success of old during Ticknor's era, but he relished the beatings of rival

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

. Ticknor was elected to the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...

in 1954.

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* * 1909 births 1979 deaths American football centers Harvard Crimson football players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Milton Academy alumni People from Canton, Massachusetts Players of American football from Norfolk County, Massachusetts Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery {{collegefootball-player-stub