Percy Langdon "Bullet" Wendell (July 16, 1889 – March 13, 1932) 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 ...

player and coach of football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. He played college football at

Harvard University 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 high ...

, where he was a three-time All-American from 1910 to 1920. Wendell served as the head football coach at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

in 1920, at

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

from 1921 to 1924, and at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Ep ...

from 1925 to 1927, compiling a career college football coaching record of 30–33–4. He was also the head basketball coach at Boston University for one season, in 1919–20, tallying a mark of 0–6. Wendell was elected to the

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

as a player in 1972.

Biography

Wendell was born on July 16, 1889, in

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for neighborhood services coordination. The city states that Roxbury ser ...

to Frank Thaxter Wendell and Helen Stamford. He attended the

Roxbury Latin School The Roxbury Latin School is a private boys' day school that was founded in 1645 in the town of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) by the Rev. John Eliot (missionary), John Eliot under a charter rec ...

and attended

from 1909 to 1913. He went on to attend two years of medical school. Wendell was issued a patent () for a design of football

nose armor A nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which receive and expel air for respiration alongside the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes th ...

(also referred to as a nose mask or nose guard), a piece of protective equipment used in the early days of football before helmets with

face mask The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...

s. Wendell was the 16th head football coach at

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19,3 ...

and he held that position for three seasons, from 1925 until 1927. His record at Lehigh was 5–20–2. Wendell died of pneumonia, on March 13, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

* * 1889 births 1932 deaths American football halfbacks Basketball coaches from Massachusetts Boston University Terriers football coaches Boston University Terriers men's basketball coaches Harvard Crimson football players Lehigh Mountain Hawks football coaches Williams Ephs football coaches Roxbury Latin School alumni All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Boston Players of American football from Boston Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts {{1920s-collegefootball-coach-stub