Robert Edwin Blake (January 31, 1885 – May 8, 1962) was an

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

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player for the Vanderbilt Commodores of

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

. Every football season in which he played, Blake was a member of the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

(SIAA) championship team and unanimously selected All-Southern. He was a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

. His three brothers, Dan, Vaughn, and Frank, also played on those winning teams. Dan, Bob, and Vaughn were captains of the

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

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 ...

, and 1908 Vanderbilt football teams respectively. He thus signed letters "Bob Blake, ''

pater familias The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (: ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his extende ...

''." Blake was later general counsel for the International Shoe Company, and married Dorothy Gaynor. Blake was also president of the Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1944.

Early life

Blake was born on January 31, 1885, in Cuero, Texas, to Daniel Bigelow Blake Sr. and Mary Clara Weldon. Dan Sr. was a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and once president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine. Bob Blake prepped at Bowen School.

College career

Blake was

’s first athlete to earn 16 letters, participating in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He stood 6 feet and weighed 170 pounds. While a senior, Blake was honored as Bachelor of Ugliness.

Football

Blake was a prominent end for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt Commodores football teams in 1903 and from 1905 to

. He was also a punter and

drop kick A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...

er. As a punter, one writer claimed others considered him "the best in the country." He was selected All-Southern unanimously each and every year he played, and Vanderbilt won the

(SIAA) championship in all of his years. 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 ...

called Blake one of the greatest players in Vanderbilt history, along with Ray Morrison and Owsley Manier.

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 ...

once said about Bob Blake, “he was the only halfback who never lost a yard around right end.” 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." In the opinion of fellow Vanderbilt player

Honus Craig John Livingston "Honus" Craig (November 30, 1881 – April 18, 1942) was an American college football player and coach. Early years John Livingston Craig was born on November 30, 1881, in Culleoka, Tennessee, to Thompson Sloan Craig and Ella Cli ...

, Blake was the South's greatest player. Blake was chosen for an all-time Vandy team in 1912, and for an ''Associated Press'' Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869–1919 era.

1903

Both Blake and teammate John J. Tigert were

s. Blake broke his wrist in the Sewanee–Vanderbilt game.

1904 and 1905

Bob Blake did not play in Dan McGugin's first year of 1904, but resumed play on the 1905 team.

1906

Vanderbilt won a major intersectional contest in

when it defeated

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

4–0 via a single, 17-yard Blake drop kick, "the crowning feat of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association season." The score was 4 to 0, as field goals then counted for 4 points.

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 ...

inductee Albert Exendine was playing for Carlisle.

Frank Mount Pleasant Franklin Pierce Mount Pleasant Jr. (June 13, 1884 – April 12, 1937) was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American American football, football player, track and field athlete, and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He p ...

missed four field goals.

1907

He made Walter Camp's All-America Honorable Mention in 1907, as well as the first team All-American selection of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

coach Fielding Yost. Blake threw the pass to Stein Stone on a trick double-pass play which set up the score to beat Sewanee in

for the SIAA championship, which was cited by

as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports. Blake missed two kicks on a slippery field in the 8–0 loss to

Coaching career

Blake assisted his brother, Frank, in coaching at Gordon Institute in 1907. In 1910, Blake was awarded a law degree and returned to Vanderbilt for one season as an assistant football coach for Dan McGugin. The 1910 team shocked defending national champion

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 ...

with a scoreless tie. He coached at Montgomery Bell Academy in 1912.

Later life

After practicing law in Nashville from 1911 to 1919, he engaged in business in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. He was elected to the board of directors of the International Shoe company in 1921, and directed the company since 1929. Blake was president of the Missouri Constitutional Convention and awarded the "Man of the Year" award for Saint Louis in 1944. Blake died on May 8, 1962, at his home in

Webster Groves, Missouri Webster Groves is an inner-ring Greater St. Louis, suburb of St. Louis in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 24,010 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is home to the main campus of Webster Universit ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Bob 1885 births 1962 deaths 20th-century American lawyers American football drop kickers American football ends American football punters American football placekickers American men's basketball players Vanderbilt Commodores baseball players Vanderbilt Commodores football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores football players Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players High school football coaches in Tennessee All-American college football players All-Southern college football players American Rhodes Scholars Sportspeople from Cuero, Texas Players of American football from DeWitt County, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Basketball players from Texas