Walter Huston "Cappy" Lillard (November 20, 1881 – June 30, 1967) was an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and educator. He coached the

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

for one season in 1909 and amassed a 5–1–2 record. Lillard taught English and coached football at

Phillips Academy, Andover Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a private, co-educational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students located in Andover, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The academy enrolls a ...

, and later became the headmaster of the Tabor Academy.

Early life

Lillard was born on November 20, 1881, in

Paris, Illinois Paris is a city in Edgar County, Illinois, south of Chicago and west of Indianapolis. The population was 8,291 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat and largest city in Edgar County, Illinois, Edgar County. History Paris was established i ...

. He attended

and graduated in 1905."Wearers of the 'D'", ''2008 Dartmouth Football Media Guide'', p. 137, Dartmouth College, 2008. Lillard played on the football team as a left end and earned

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. A person who ...

s in 1903 and 1904. ''

The Dartmouth ''The Dartmouth'' is the daily student newspaper at Dartmouth College and America's oldest college newspaper. Originally named the ''Dartmouth Gazette'', the first issue was published on August 27, 1799, under the motto "Here range the world— ...

'' wrote that "Lillard, though an exceedingly light man for college football, was enabled to hold an end position on several of the strongest teams ever representing the Green." Lillard was a player on the 1903 team, which was the first in school history to defeat

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1905.

Professional career

Andover

Upon graduation, Lillard served as an assistant coach at Dartmouth in 1905 and 1906.''The Dartmouth, Volume XXX''
p. 322, December 22, 1908. In 1907, the preparatory school

hired Lillard as an English instructor and head football coach, which made him the first faculty member to serve as a head coach, ending the school practice of hiring professionals.Axel Bundgaard
''Muscle and Manliness: The Rise of Sport in American Boarding Schools''
pp. 180–182, Syracuse University Press, 2005, . His appointment was praised by the Andover faculty which blamed the professional coaches for "illegal recruiting, and the commercialism which had crept into college athletics, particularly football." He coached Andover again the following year, before his team's success on the gridiron attracted the attention of his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

Dartmouth coach

In December 1908, the Dartmouth athletic council selected the football staff which consisted of four graduates: W. J. Randall (1896), Leigh Turner (1901), and Joseph T. Gilman (1905), and Lillard, who was chosen as the head coach. He also took direct responsibility for the

ends End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) *End (topology) *End (graph theory) *End (graph_theory)#Cayley_graphs, End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) *End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridir ...

. Lillard took a leave of absence from Andover to attend graduate school at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in England and then to coach at Dartmouth during the 1909 football season. During his tenure, the Green compiled a 5–1–2 record.All-Time Coaching Records by Year
, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved July 2, 2010.

Return to Andover

Lillard received his A.M. from Dartmouth in 1910.David Hicks Lillard
''Lillard: A Family of Colonial Virginia, Volume 2''
p. 1058, Southern Historical Press, 1991, . That year, he returned to coach and teach at Andover, where he remained at least through 1915. In 1911, he helped implement a new school policy which required every student to participate in some form of athletics, including intramural competition.ANDOVER APPROVES INTRA-MURAL SPORT; Every Student Taking Part in Some Branch of Athletics, Says W. Huston Lillard
''The New York Times'', December 25, 1915. Lillard told a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reporter:

"We had genuine satisfaction at Andover in seeing the bleachers empty and the fields covered with boys having a mighty good time. The new plan as compared with the old gave each individual four times as much actual playing in games, but of course not the same kind of experience that comes with meeting an unknown opponent."

Lillard went on to praise the widespread participation in sports at English universities, and said virtually all of their students competed in

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

, or

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

. Lillard contrasted this situation with the one at American universities, where, he noted, "about 100 picked men play ... surrounded by a large body of 2,000 rooters. To make the situation worse, these American athletes are playing in a spotlight of publicity, especially the demigods of the 'Varsity."

Tabor Academy headmaster

In 1916, Lillard was hired as the principal of Tabor Academy in

Marion, Massachusetts Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,347 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Mar ...

.Our History
Tabor Academy, retrieved July 2, 2010. During his tenure, Tabor Academy's enrollment increased tenfold. Lillard resigned from the post in 1942. In 1963, Lillard published a book, ''Courage on the Danube'', which documented the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

. He died of a heart ailment on June 30, 1967, in the New England Medical Center in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

at the age of 85.WALTER LILLARD, EDUCATOR, WAS 85; Former Tabor Headmaster and U.S. Aide Is Dead
''The New York Times'', July 3, 1967.

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lillard, W. H. 1881 births 1967 deaths 20th-century American educators American football ends Dartmouth Big Green football coaches Dartmouth Big Green football players High school football coaches in Massachusetts Alumni of the University of Oxford Sportspeople from Plymouth County, Massachusetts People from Marion, Massachusetts People from Paris, Illinois Tabor Academy (Massachusetts) Educators from Illinois Players of American football from Illinois