Today's Tidbit... When Dad is the Father of Football

Growing up in the shadow of a rich and famous father can be difficult, so I've made damn sure my kids don’t have to deal with that. Still, imagine the expectations placed on a kid whose Dad was known as the Father of American Football five years before the lad was born. That was the case for Walter Camp, Jr.

Walter Camp (Senior) ran the New Haven Clock company and did lots of Yale and general football stuff as Junior grew up, so he was well acquainted with the game and Yale football before becoming a bulldog himself.

He played football at the Westminster School (CT) and started as a sophomore in 1905. Meanwhile, his father helped make football safe for humanity that winter, only to see his son break his collarbone early in the 1906 season. Junior was younger than his classmates, so he took a gap year before entering Yale in 1909 and joining the freshmen football team as a reported 198-pounder.

He immediately established himself as an effective punter and kicker, threw a 50-yard touchdown pass in an early-season freshman game, and generally showed promise on the football field—enough promise that he could not avoid comparisons with his father.

('W. Camp Sr. Sends Walter Camp Jr To Show Harvard Freshmen How!,' Boston Globe, November 13, 1909.)

During the 1910 season, the sophomore split time between halfback and fullback until he injured his knee during a late September game with Colgate, which led to his hospitalization.