Walter Cowles "Bummy" Booth (December 7, 1874 – April 5, 1944) 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 ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

from 1900 to 1905, compiling a record of 46–8–1. Booth led Nebraska to a perfect, shutout season in

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's ...

. His teams achieved the longest winning streak in Nebraska football history with 27 victories including exhibition games, and the second longest with 24 victories excluding exhibition games. That streak remained unbroken until the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers extended their winning streak to 26 games.

Coaching career

Booth turned Nebraska into an independent football powerhouse in the Midwest after coming off its first losing season in

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

. Alonzo Edwin Branch had left the program in 1899, making room for Booth to take over. The 1900 Nebraska football team would be the first to be officially called the Cornhuskers and had a record of 6–1–1, not counting two exhibition games. Every game that year was a shutout until the last game of the season with a 20–21 loss to

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The 1901 Nebraska football team had a 6–2 record with several shutouts - including a 51–0 game against rival

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

- and ended the season with a three-game winning streak. The program had Nebraska's best season ever when in

the team went undefeated, untied, and unscored upon for a perfect 9–0 record, excluding an exhibition against Lincoln High School with a score of 27–0. The team was led by

John R. Bender John Reinhold "Chief" Bender (May 14, 1882 – July 24, 1928) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Black Hills State University (1905), Washington State University ...

and Charles Borg and had a 12-game winning streak. In

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for al ...

Nebraska continued its winning streak with a 10–0 record (not counting the 23–6 exhibition game victory over Lincoln High School). The winning streak was now 22 games (24 with exhibition games). One newspaper stated that "Nebraska occupies a unique position in western football, too strong to find fearful competitors; the Cornhuskers can almost weep with

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

because they have no more teams to conquer." The 1904 Nebraska Cornhuskers team would win their first two games and one exhibition game before losing to Colorado to end a 24-game winning streak (27 including exhibition games). This streak remained a school record until the 1994 Nebraska Cornhuskers team had a 26-game winning streak before losing to Arizona State in 1996. The 1904 team would end the season with a 7–3 record, not counting two exhibition game victories. Booth's final season was in

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

, which he finished with an 8–2 record, not counting one exhibition victory. The university's student newspaper stated that Booth "raised Nebraska from a second-rate team among those of the Missouri Valley to a position where even the leaders of the Conference look upon her as an opponent to be feared." Booth's final record was 46–8–1 for a .845 winning percentage, a school record until Ewald O. Stiehm surpassed it with a 35–5–3 (.913) record from 1911 to 1915.

Later life and death

Booth worked in the insurance business for many years with Big Bill Edwards, his former Princeton teammate, as a partner. Booth died on April 5, 1944 at

Roosevelt Hospital Mount Sinai West, opened in 1871 as Roosevelt Hospital, is affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Mount Sinai Health System. The 514-bed facility is located in the Midtown West neighborhood of New York City. The fa ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Head coaching record

''Exhibition games are not counted''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Walter C. 1874 births 1944 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football centers Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic directors Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers track and field coaches Princeton Tigers football players