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Old 12-22-2015, 05:51 PM
jefferyepayne jefferyepayne is offline
Jeff P
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Location: Virginia
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Picked up this 1910(ish) photo of Eddie Mahan.



A little bit of history on Mr. Mahan:

When Jim Thorpe was asked to choose the greatest football player of all time, he selected Eddie Mahan. Thorpe said:

"Eddie Mahan of Harvard was the greatest football player I have ever seen. He had everything, he could run, pass and kick. He was big, weighed 190 pounds, was smart enough to play quarterback and also good enough to play in the line. To me that's proof enough that Mahan was the tops. He was a specialist in all lines."

In his book about the early days of football, Bill Edwards said

"If the future football generals develop a better all-around man than Eddie Mahan, captain of the great Harvard team of 1915, whose playing brought not only victory to Harvard but was accompanied by great admiration throughout the football world, they may well congratulate themselves."

In November 1925, football writer W.B. Hanna compared Red Grange to Mahan:

"In the writer's opinion, Grange and Mahan are the greatest backs he ever saw, from the standpoint of advancing the ball. Grange seems to run with more power than Mahan and a trifle more laboriously, because he is not quite so light-footed. It may be doubted whether he is as fast, but that is mere guesswork. Football, carrying the ball, seemed play to Mahan. Grange does not do his work in quite that effortless manner."

In 1927, George Trevor of the New York Sun selected an all-time backfield made up of Mahan, Walter Eckersall, Jim Thorpe, and Willie Heston of Michigan. Western football expert Walter Eckersall added, "Mahan is awarded the honor of being Harvard's greatest football player, a terror to the opposition offensively and defensively. As a line plunger he ranks with the greatest in history."

In 1951, Mahan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the first group of inductees.

jeff

Last edited by jefferyepayne; 12-22-2015 at 05:51 PM.
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