Arthur Poe, Princeton ’00, a first team All-American in 1899, made the decisive scores that beat Yale two years running. The matches between these two institutions were the biggest games in football; the most significant, the most anticipated and overwhelmingly the most well attended of any college football games at the time. In 1898 Poe ran ninety yards for a touchdown after grabbing the ball out of Yale’s Durstine’s arms (it was not picking up a fumble and returning it for a touchdown as is re-stated in many sources) for the only score of the game. In the 1899 game, with the score 10 to 6 in Yale’s favor and under a minute of play left, Poe volunteered to try a drop-kick even though he had never kicked in a college game previously (both Princeton kickers were already out of the game; all but three players who had started the game had been replaced (Pell, Edwards and Poe)). Poe dropped back to the 35-yard line and made a perfect drop kick (as stated in news reports of the time) winning the game for Princeton, over Yale by the score of 11 to 10.
Poe’s version was a bit different: “The pass from center came back perfectly which is more than anyone could truthfully say for the rest of the play...The ball bounded a little too high off the ground as I dropped it and I got under it too much, raising it high into the air almost like a punt. It came down just about a foot over the crossbar and about a yard inside the upright. I wasn’t sure it was good until I turned to the referee and saw him raise his arms and heard him say ‘goal.’…Then everything broke loose….All I remember after that was being seized by a crowd of undergraduates and alumni who rushed onto the field, and hearing my brother Net (Neilson) shout: ‘You damned lucky kid, you have licked them again.”
The kick, Poe wrote in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, was “the first I had ever attempted in a game, though I had practiced a great deal. The week of the Yale game Big Bill Edwards and I had a contest with Alex Moffat ’84, who had kicked four goals in one game against Harvard or Yale… Alex and I tried a number from different distances and I beat him much to his humiliation. Wheeler and Hutchinson, our two drop kickers, had been succeeded by substitutes so there was no one left with experience in a game…Palmer and I were wearing light weight shoes to increase our speed. There was no toe box to the shoes, so I kicked with my instep.”
Poe’s fame was immense as a result of that kick and this lasted for the entirety of his life. From the Nassau Herald, 1900, is a quote I always liked: “The game was fast and furious, and to Arthur Poe we owe one of the happiest moments of our lives, when in the last desperate half minute he turned unmerited defeat into well-earned victory. Imagine the size of Arthur’s mail for the three weeks following. He gave lady Burr complete control of his correspondence and Carl was kept busy making photographs and composing replies, most of which began like this: 'Mr. Poe directs me to thank you for the lock of hair. He prizes it highly and regrets that another engagement will prevent his presence at Cadwalader Park, Friday evening.'”
As a researcher, it is always nice to identify first-hand accounts from those that witnessed an event. Author Joseph Bearns attended every Yale-Princeton match in the 1890s and wrote about two games of particular interest to this posting, those that took place in 1898 and 1899. Bearns, who did not attend either Princeton or Yale, but appreciated the best football being played at the time, became an acknowledged expert on this series and on the individual Princeton and Yale players. Amazingly, Bearns attended 56 of the 57 Yale-Princeton games played from 1890 through 1949, missing only 1901 due to illness (1917, 1918 and 1944 were not played due to the wars).
I borrow directly from Bearns account of the ‘98 and ‘99 games:
“Princeton had a fine well-balanced team in 1898 and finally won out (against Yale) by the close score of 6 to 0. Poe (Arthur) making the only touchdown. It was a great victory for Princeton. Poe at right end, Palmer at left end and Edwards at right guard, Hildebrandt at right tackle and Booth at center starred for Princeton. For Yale, DeSaulees and Ely, quarterbacks, and McBride, fullback’ starred. It was reported after the game that Morris Ely, former Poly quarterback, played the entire second half with a broken collarbone.
The following game (in the series) in 1899 at New Haven was one of the most interesting and exciting games of the entire series. The followers of both teams and the general football fans in attendance never dreamed of the dramatic climax that was to mark the finish of this historic struggle. The game was very close throughout and the teams appeared to be about evenly matched in every department. Both had made one touchdown and Sharpe of Yale had made a beautiful field goal. Princeton converted after its touchdown whereas Yale had failed and with about ten minutes remaining to playing the second half, the score was 10 to 6 in favor of Yale.
The Eli team appeared to have the game well in hand. But this Tiger team elected to die hard, although a Yale victory was figured to be certain. After a last desperate effort in the closing minutes of play, the Tigers succeeded in the pigskin down to about the Yale 30-Yard line, with the ball being just about one yard inside of the sideline. I recall time was taken out and it was learned by the teams that there was less than one minute to play. Princeton’s cause looked hopeless and the Yale contingent was already proclaiming victory for this strong Eli outfit, but it was just not to be.
I can remember that it was starting to get dark on this afternoon at Yale Field, New Haven. The Princeton players gathered together to decide what would be the last play of the game, and I heard afterwards, but did not know it to be authentic, that Poe (Arthur) had volunteered to try a drop kick. The angle was so great and the distance so far, it looked as if there was not a chance. I figured that not one person figured it would be successful.
Poe dropped back, the Princeton line held remarkably well, and he drop kicked. I never can forget this drop kick. It was perfect. The ball sailed high, its course true and went between the posts and well over the crossbar. If the ball had gone a few feet to either side it never could have been made. It was declared a field goal by the officials and Poe had accomplished what appeared to be the impossible. The game was over and Princeton had won by a score of 11 to 10. Poe was a hero and I remember the students carrying him on their shoulders around Yale Field for probably half an hour after the game. I have often thought that there was something spiritual about the ending of this game. It is my opinion that this final play was the most decisive ever made on a football field.”
Bearns also named players from the six decades of Princeton – Yale football he was familiar with, that were in his opinion the best at their respective positions (for both Yale and Princeton). He named Arthur Poe to his Princeton “first team” at Right End, with Princeton alternates Trenchard, Cochran, Henry, Stout, Moeser, Lea (Gilbert, Langdon's son) and Davis.
There are many dozens of accounts of both of these games in reference books, and many hundreds from newspapers that I have viewed. A common theme amongst them is that the 1899 game is considered one of the most significant games of the 19th century. As an example, the book Rites of Autumn by Richard Whittingham, in the chapter on the greatest games in college football details only one 19th century game, the 1899 Princeton – Yale game.
Arthur Poe is widely considered one of the top four ends of the 19th century, along with Gelbert of Penn, Hinkey of Yale and Hallowell of Harvard.
I have seen several more modern accounts that suggest Arthur's brother, Edgar Allen, was the player of superior athletic ability amongst the Poe brothers, however, contemporaneous to their playing and to the 1899 game, and for five or six decades following, it was Arthur who was widely acknowledged to be the superior athlete (not just in football) and the better known player.
What is not commonly known is that all of the Poes wrestled, all being trained, and initially wrestling under John Doyle (a wrestler in his own right) of the Baltimore Athletic Club. Of the sons, Johnny, Neilson and Arthur excelled with some notoriety. One newspaper article from 1903 cited Doyle’s years as an instructor at the Baltimore Athletic Club and St. Leos Gymnasium and credited him in the headline as “Tutor of Famous Poe Family of Princeton Athletes” and in the articles body, that he “guided them in their athletic careers.” It was not uncommon in the 1890s to see newspaper articles covering athletic contests where one of the Poes was victorious in wrestling competitions, wrestling either for the BAC or for Princeton. Arthur was a top wrestler in two weight classes at Princeton.
Poe’s winning run in 1898 and kick against the Elis
in 1899 were featured in a heavily illustrated poetic volume by M'Cready Sykes,
entitled "Poe's Run and Other Poems."
Poe married Anne Emerson King, sister of fellow Princeton football player
Phil King. It was one of their two daughters, Ella Poe
Burling, a Washington D.C. socialite, whose estate sold in 2004, after her passing, through
Weschlers, an auction house also in D.C. Ella had inherited her father’s belongings, including all of his football and
wrestling charms, medals and awards and these were all bought at Weschlers by a
single individual, an antiques dealer in Alexandria, Virginia. These were put away and stored in a safe for a dozen years; only a pocket compass of Poe’s from the
collection was sold off. One night a few years back Jacob called me after midnight, having
found an advertisement for the shop online, picturing Poe’s 1899 charm. We contacted the shop the next day and purchased the charm; a pretty significant item. After getting the charm in hand, four or five days passed before I was contacted by the
owner of the shop who asked me a question I wasn’t prepared to hear - “what
about the rest of the pieces”. What pieces? We only knew of the one charm. I was
forwarded photos of Arthur Poe’s 1896 Scrub Championship charm, his 1898 Champions charm, his class pin,
his Princeton gold cufflinks awarded to him after the 1899 game and his Baltimore Athletic Club and
Princeton wrestling medals. Over the next two days we reached an agreement on
prices for each piece and were able to keep it all together. The only piece we found and bought separately was Poe’s 1899 silver match safe, awarded to team members
commemorating the 1899 win over Yale. We know of one other of these Princeton match
safes, having belonged to William Roper, originally coming out of Heritage
auctions in 2011 and recently coming up at auction again in October of last year.
Associated blog posting - October 5, 2020
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