Today's Tidbit... Getting to Know Willis C. Edson
Today's Tidbit... Getting to Know Willis C. Edson
It has been a challenging year for Badgers football fans, but today provides an opportunity for the team to continue righting the ship in its contest at Iowa City. I don't particularly like Iowa, but I don't dislike them either. So, I thought I would send Today's Tidbit early in honor of a former Beaver, Cyclone, and Hawkeye, W. C. Edson, who played for Iowa 120 years ago. Edson seems like a guy with whom I'd like to have a beer whenever Elon gets that time travel thing figured out.
Every fan of college football history should know of Willis C. Edson or someone like him. Commonly known as W. C. Edson, he grew up an intelligent lad in Storm Lake, Iowa, staying in Storm Lake to attend Buena Vista College sometime around 1893. He played football, though little information about the team or his performance is available. Newspaper reports indicate he competed in oratory and seemed to have a sense of humor. It may not be common knowledge, but Iowa's hog inventory today is more than three times that of any other state, and it was substantial in Edson's day as well. The familiarity with hogs made Edson joke that the Buena Vista team had played so little football that most team members' experience carrying the pigskin was limited to situations with a live pig inside.
Edson transferred to Iowa State in 1897, immediately earning a starting role as a halfback on the football team. That came during the five years from 1895-1899 that Pop Warner coached at Georgia, Cornell, or Carlisle, yet spent each August in Ames, Iowa, coaching Iowa State's football team. So, Edson had two years to soak up coaching from one of the game's all-time greats. The Cyclones did well in 1897, beating Nebraska (coached by Fielding Yost), Minnesota, and Iowa while losing to Grinnell, and they went 3-2 his final year in Ames.
Upon graduating from Iowa State, Edson enrolled in law school at Iowa, spending the next two years there. The 5' 6", 153-pound Edson started at left tackle on a 7-0-1 team. Of course, tackles and guards frequently ran with the ball in those days. Before the season's second game at Chicago, Edson asked the team manager to provide him with a set of football shoes with spikes - the first set of his career. The manager grudgingly did so, after which Edson scored a touchdown in the game, one of three scored on Chicago that year, allowing Edson to regularly remind the manager of the smart investment he made in those spikes.
Iowa followed up in 1900 with a 7-0-1 season, with Edson playing halfback. Before tying Northwestern in the last game of the year, Edson starred versus Michigan, scoring two of Iowa's four touchdowns.
After graduating, Edson coached at Iowa Teachers (now Northern Iowa) before establishing a law practice back in Storm Lake. There, he taught Buena Vista's football team while returning over the next six to eight years to play in the Iowa State and Iowa alumni games against the varsity.
Over the years, he was active civically, becoming a long-time member of Buena Vista's board of directors, and a member of the Iowa state legislature, becoming its speaker in 1925.
Pretty good stuff for a guy who first carried a pigskin with a live pig inside.
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