Everett Strupper
Encyclopedia
George Everett "Stroop" Strupper (July 26, 1896 - February 4, 1950) was an All-American football
player. He played halfback
for Georgia Tech
from 1915 to 1917. Strupper overcame deafness
resulting from a childhood illness and was selected as an All-American in 1917. During Strupper's three years playing for Georgia Tech, the team compiled a record of 24-0-2 and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61. In Georgia Tech's record-setting 220-0 win over Cumberland College
in 1916, Strupper scored eight touchdowns. Strupper was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1972 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
in 1974.
and attended Riverside Military Academy
in Gainesville, Georgia
before enrolling at Georgia Tech. Strupper played halfback for Georgia Tech football teams under head coach John Heisman
from 1915 to 1917. Strupper was deaf, and because of his deafness, he called the signals instead of the team’s quarterback. Strupper was a small man, with his height being stated in varying accounts to be between five-feet seven inches and five-feet, ten inches. His coach John Heisman later wrote that Strupper was "but 5 feet 7 inches in height, weighed only 148 pounds stripped." He was sometimes known as "little Everett Strupper."
Georgia Tech never lost a game in which Strupper played, compiling three consecutive undefeated seasons from 1915 to 1917. During Strupper's three years playing for Georgia Tech, the team compiled a record of 24-0-2. Only two teams managed a tie – the University of Georgia in 1915 and Washington & Lee in 1916. In those 26 games, Georgia Tech outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61.
Georgia Tech coach John Heisman later described Strupper as follows:
Heisman recalled that, when Strupper first arrived from Riverside Military Academy
, Heisman could not imagine Strupper playing on the football team: “Too light for the line, I didn't see how he could play in the backfield, because he wouldn't be able to get the signals. He could have played quarterback fine, but his enunciation wasn't clear enough for him to call the plays.” Heisman recalled how Strupper overcame the obstacle posed by his deafness: “He couldn't hear anything but a regular shout. But he could read your lips like a flash. No lad that ever stepped on a football field had keener eyes than Everett had. The enemy found this out the minute he began looking for openings through which to run the ball.”
Strupper was selected as an all-Southern player in both 1915 and 1916.
When Strupper tried out for the team, he noticed that the quarterback would shout the signals every time Strupper was to carry the ball. Realizing the loud signals would be a tip-off to the opposition, Strupper told Heisman, "Coach, those loud signals are absolutely unnecessary. You see when sickness in my kid days brought on this deafness my folks gave me the best instructors obtainable to teach me lip-reading."
in "the most lopsided game in football history." The score (compiled on 32 touchdowns and 30 extra points) broke the old record of a 153-0 set by the University of Michigan
in 1912. Strupper scored eight touchdowns in the game, six rushing and two on punt returns. One historic account of the 1916 Cumberland game described Strupper as the "lord high executioner":
In the first quarter alone, Strupper scored four touchdowns on runs of 20, 10, 60, and 45 yards. Strupper chose to allow others to share in the scoring. With a 42-0 lead midway through the first quarter, Strupper broke clear and could have scored easily, but he intentionally grounded the ball at the one-yard line to allow Georgia Tech tackle J. Cantey Alexander to score the first touchdown of his career. A teammate later recalled the play as follows:
As the score became increasingly lopsided, Strupper was pulled from the game, and substitute halfback Jim Fellers also scored five touchdowns and an extra point. The game was eventually halted after just 44 minutes of play.
Strupper scored five touchdowns against Carlisle, including a 32-yard fumble return for a touchdown. And in a 68-7 win over rival Auburn, Strupper had a 65-yard touchdown run that drew the following praise from the Atlanta Journal:
Team. Strupper was also selected by his teammates to be the captain of the Georgia Tech football team in 1918, a year that would have been his senior season. However, Strupper entered the military after the 1917 football season and did not return to Georgia Tech for his senior year.
After returning from the war, Strupper went into the automobile business and later the insurance business. He went on to become the president of the Piedmont Life insurance Co.
at his home in an Atlanta, Georgia
hotel. He was age 57 at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Gwyneth Oliver.
Strupper is thought to be the person who came up with the Red Elephant mascot for the University of Alabama
in an article he wrote for the Atlanta Journal. Strupper was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1972 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
in 1974.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player. He played halfback
Halfback (American football)
A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...
for Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represents the Georgia Institute of Technology in collegiate level football. While the team is officially designated as the Yellow Jackets, it is also referred to as the Ramblin' Wreck. The Yellow Jackets are a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
from 1915 to 1917. Strupper overcame deafness
Hearing impairment
-Definition:Deafness is the inability for the ear to interpret certain or all frequencies of sound.-Environmental Situations:Deafness can be caused by environmental situations such as noise, trauma, or other ear defections...
resulting from a childhood illness and was selected as an All-American in 1917. During Strupper's three years playing for Georgia Tech, the team compiled a record of 24-0-2 and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61. In Georgia Tech's record-setting 220-0 win over Cumberland College
Cumberland University
Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1842, though the current campus buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896.-History:...
in 1916, Strupper scored eight touchdowns. Strupper was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1972 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1974.
Football career
Strupper was a native of Columbus, GeorgiaColumbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
and attended Riverside Military Academy
Riverside Military Academy
Riverside Military Academy is a private, college preparatory, boarding and day school for boys in grades 7 though 12. Riverside's campus is located on Lake Sydney Lanier at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Gainesville, Georgia, USA. Riverside's academic year runs August through May...
in Gainesville, Georgia
Gainesville, Georgia
-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
before enrolling at Georgia Tech. Strupper played halfback for Georgia Tech football teams under head coach John Heisman
John Heisman
John William Heisman was an American player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Oberlin College , Buchtel College, now known as the University of Akron , Auburn University , Clemson University , Georgia Tech , the...
from 1915 to 1917. Strupper was deaf, and because of his deafness, he called the signals instead of the team’s quarterback. Strupper was a small man, with his height being stated in varying accounts to be between five-feet seven inches and five-feet, ten inches. His coach John Heisman later wrote that Strupper was "but 5 feet 7 inches in height, weighed only 148 pounds stripped." He was sometimes known as "little Everett Strupper."
Georgia Tech never lost a game in which Strupper played, compiling three consecutive undefeated seasons from 1915 to 1917. During Strupper's three years playing for Georgia Tech, the team compiled a record of 24-0-2. Only two teams managed a tie – the University of Georgia in 1915 and Washington & Lee in 1916. In those 26 games, Georgia Tech outscored its opponents by a combined score of 1,135 to 61.
Georgia Tech coach John Heisman later described Strupper as follows:
”Everett Strupper was a small package of condensed lightning when you turned him loose in an open field with a ball you wanted delivered somewhere in the neighborhood of the enemy's goal line. He was small, but he was put together like a high-powered motor. His arms and legs did just what his mind told them to do, and, believe me, his mind worked faster than Ty CobbTy CobbTyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
's when he's running the bases. Dodging and twisting, stiff-arming and hipping, he'd run the gauntlet of men big enough, you'd think, to pick him up and spank him, and most of the time, too, he'd get away from them, try as hard as they would.”
Heisman recalled that, when Strupper first arrived from Riverside Military Academy
Riverside Military Academy
Riverside Military Academy is a private, college preparatory, boarding and day school for boys in grades 7 though 12. Riverside's campus is located on Lake Sydney Lanier at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Gainesville, Georgia, USA. Riverside's academic year runs August through May...
, Heisman could not imagine Strupper playing on the football team: “Too light for the line, I didn't see how he could play in the backfield, because he wouldn't be able to get the signals. He could have played quarterback fine, but his enunciation wasn't clear enough for him to call the plays.” Heisman recalled how Strupper overcame the obstacle posed by his deafness: “He couldn't hear anything but a regular shout. But he could read your lips like a flash. No lad that ever stepped on a football field had keener eyes than Everett had. The enemy found this out the minute he began looking for openings through which to run the ball.”
Strupper was selected as an all-Southern player in both 1915 and 1916.
1915
In his freshman year, Strupper proved to be an all-around athlete. As Heisman told it, Strupper "was a star baseball player, a crack at basketball and the best sprint man we had in the school." Heisman recalled that, despite his small stature, Strupper had a powerful body: "Stripped down in the dressing rooms Everett was a sight to behold. There never was a better set up lad than he; he was a regular Apollo, beautifully muscled and built and coordinating rhythmically in every movement."When Strupper tried out for the team, he noticed that the quarterback would shout the signals every time Strupper was to carry the ball. Realizing the loud signals would be a tip-off to the opposition, Strupper told Heisman, "Coach, those loud signals are absolutely unnecessary. You see when sickness in my kid days brought on this deafness my folks gave me the best instructors obtainable to teach me lip-reading."
1916
In 1916, Strupper led Georgia Tech to a 220-0 victory over Cumberland CollegeCumberland College
Cumberland College may refer to:*Cumberland College, Otago, a residential college for the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand*Cumberland College a defunct institution in Princeton, Kentucky...
in "the most lopsided game in football history." The score (compiled on 32 touchdowns and 30 extra points) broke the old record of a 153-0 set by the University of Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
in 1912. Strupper scored eight touchdowns in the game, six rushing and two on punt returns. One historic account of the 1916 Cumberland game described Strupper as the "lord high executioner":
"There were many executioners that crisp early-fall Saturday. Halfback G.E. Strupper scored from 20 yards out on Tech's first offensive play and went on to be lord high executioner with eight touchdowns and a conversion for a total of 49 points."
In the first quarter alone, Strupper scored four touchdowns on runs of 20, 10, 60, and 45 yards. Strupper chose to allow others to share in the scoring. With a 42-0 lead midway through the first quarter, Strupper broke clear and could have scored easily, but he intentionally grounded the ball at the one-yard line to allow Georgia Tech tackle J. Cantey Alexander to score the first touchdown of his career. A teammate later recalled the play as follows:
"Strupper swapped positions with Alexander ... The team didn't want to make
it too easy for Cantey, though. The other boys wouldn't block for him or help in any way. As soon as the ball was snapped, they ran away from the line and out of the. play completely. Leaving poor Cantey to go it alone. Finally, on fourth down, a bruised' and weary Alexander managed to get the ball across while his teammates howled with laughter."
As the score became increasingly lopsided, Strupper was pulled from the game, and substitute halfback Jim Fellers also scored five touchdowns and an extra point. The game was eventually halted after just 44 minutes of play.
1917
Strupper also played on the 1917 team that defeated the University of Pennsylvania, then one of the Eastern powers, 41-0. In a 98-0 win over the Carlisle Indians in 1917, Strupper drew praise for his performance. The Atlanta Journal wrote:"Everett Strupper played like a veritable demon. At one time four Carlisle men pounced on him from all directions, and yet through some superhuman witchery he broke loose and dashed 10 yards further. On another occasion he attempted a wide end run, found that he was completely blocked, then suddenly whirled and ran the other way, gaining something like 25 yards before he was downed."
Strupper scored five touchdowns against Carlisle, including a 32-yard fumble return for a touchdown. And in a 68-7 win over rival Auburn, Strupper had a 65-yard touchdown run that drew the following praise from the Atlanta Journal:
"It was not the length of the run that featured it was the brilliance of it. After getting through the
first line, Stroop was tackled squarely by two secondary men, and yet he squirmed and jerked loosed from them, only to face the safety man and another Tiger, coming at him from different angles. Without checking his speed Everett knifed the two men completely, running between them and dashing on to a touchdown."
Post 1917
After the 1917 season, Strupper was picked on a sports writers' consensus All-AmericaTeam. Strupper was also selected by his teammates to be the captain of the Georgia Tech football team in 1918, a year that would have been his senior season. However, Strupper entered the military after the 1917 football season and did not return to Georgia Tech for his senior year.
After returning from the war, Strupper went into the automobile business and later the insurance business. He went on to become the president of the Piedmont Life insurance Co.
Death and legacy
In 1950, he died from thrombosisThrombosis
Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...
at his home in an Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
hotel. He was age 57 at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Gwyneth Oliver.
Strupper is thought to be the person who came up with the Red Elephant mascot for the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
in an article he wrote for the Atlanta Journal. Strupper was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1972 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1974.