Today's Tidbit... Judging Walter Steffen's Coaching Career

(1929 Carnegie Mellon yearbook)

Walter "Wally" Steffen is among the underappreciated football figures who helped shape today's game and did so in ways impossible to replicate today.

Steffen played at North Division High in Chicago before joining Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons. He was a halfback in 1906 when his fellow backfielder, Walter Eckersall, earned All-American honors at quarterback. Steffen replaced Eckersall for the next two years and became the fourth Western player named to Walter Camp's All-American first team.

Steffen is being chased by a Wisconsin player wearing a large nose guard. (The University of Chicago Photographic Archives)

He spent the next several years assisting Stagg while attending UChicago's law school, and after passing the bar, he worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and a Chicago alderman. This job allowed him enough freedom to become Carnegie Tech's head coach in 1914. From 1914 through 1921, Steffen lived in Pittsburgh from September through Thanksgiving to coach football, returning to Chicago on occasion. However, Steffen was elected a judge for the Superior Court of Cook County in 1922, a role that did not allow him to spend three months in Pittsburgh each fall. Instead, Robert Waddell trained the team during the week while Steffen was in Chicago. Steffen then traveled to Pittsburgh or the away game location each weekend for games.