Maurice Gordon Clarke (May 2, 1877 – June 5, 1944) 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 wit ...
and
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
player and coach. The
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...
native served as head football coach at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1899, at Western Reserve University—now a part of
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Res ...
—in 1900, and at
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University i ...
, compiling a career
college football record of 15–8–3. He was also the head baseball coach at Texas in the spring of 1900, tallying a mark of 14–2–1.
Clarke was a graduate of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and played
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
for the
Chicago Maroons
The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as ...
from 1896 to 1898 teams under
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfie ...
. He also lettered in baseball at Chicago.
Personal life
Clarke was born May 2, 1877, in
Bellevue, Nebraska
Bellevue (French for "beautiful view"; previously named Belleview) is a suburban city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and had a population of 64,176 as of the 2020 Census, mak ...
, to
Henry T. Clarke Sr. and Martha A. Fielding Clarke, and had many siblings, including player, coach
Henry T. Clarke Jr.
Clarke later went into the oil business in
Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Okmulgee is a city in, and the county seat of, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. The name is from the Mvskoke word ''okimulgee,'' which means "boiling waters".Bamburg, Maxine"Okmulgee,"''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. Accessed June 16, ...
. He died there on June 5, 1944.
Head coaching record
Football
Baseball
References
External links
*
1877 births
1944 deaths
Year of death missing
19th-century players of American football
American football halfbacks
American football quarterbacks
Case Western Spartans football coaches
Chicago Maroons baseball players
Chicago Maroons football players
Texas Longhorns baseball coaches
Texas Longhorns football coaches
Washington University Bears football coaches
People from Bellevue, Nebraska
Sportspeople from Omaha, Nebraska
Coaches of American football from Nebraska
Players of American football from Nebraska
Baseball coaches from Nebraska
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