Harold Ballin
Encyclopedia
Harold Roy "Hal" Ballin was an American football player. He played at the tackle position for Princeton University
from 1912 to 1914 and was a consensus first-team All-American in both 1913 and 1914. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1973.
before enrolling at Princeton University
. He made the Second Testimonial honor roll at Lawrenceville in April 1909.
In 1912, Ballin played as a substitute tackle on Princeton's varsity football team. It was as a junior in 1913 that Ballin became a star. Playing at the right tackle position, Ballin was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1913. He was selected as a first-team All-American by, among others, Walter Camp
in Collier's Weekly
, University of Michigan Coach Fielding H. Yost, football historian Parke H. Davis
, sports writer Tom Thorp
, and the Trenton Evening-Times. In announcing his All-American team, Tom Thorp described Ballin's contributions as follows:
College Football Hall of Fame
r Charles Brickley
later recalled that Ballin was the hardest-hitting player he ever faced. Brickley said of Ballin:
At the meeting of the Princeton football on December 4, 1913, Ballin was elected as the captain of the 1914 football team. At age 20, he was one of the youngest players ever chosen as captain of Princeton's football team. As captain of the 1914 team, Ballin played every minute of every game for Princeton. In recognition of his contributions in 1914, Ballin was selected as a first-team All-American by 21 of 26 recognized selectors, including Walter Camp, Vanity Fair
(selected based on the votes of 175 "prominent newspapermen of the country"), Walter Eckersall
of the Chicago Tribune
, Frank G. Menke
, sporting editor of the International News Service, the New York Herald, and James P. Sinnot of the New York Evening Mail.
Ballin is also remembered as the last Princeton football player to play the game without a helmet. Ballin reportedly considered the helmet to be a distraction. According to newspaper accounts of the time, Ballin was "known to the sport-following public of the United States as Nig Ballin."
. In May 1916, he returned to Princeton as an assistant football coach.
Following the entry of the United States into World War I
, Ballin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
; he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1917. In the fall of 1917, Ballin was assigned to Fort Crockett
on Galveston Island
, where played on the Fort Crockett football team. In December 1918, Lieutenant Ballin coached a football team made up of Marines from the Eight Regiment of the Third Provisional Brigade, United States Marine Corps.
In the fall of 1919, after completing his military service, Ballin returned to his position as an assistant football coach at Princeton.
In 1921, Ballin was hired as "director of football tactics" at Shady Side Academy
and led the team to a one-loss season. In 1922, Ballin became the head football coach at Duquesne University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. Ballin continued as head coach for the Duquesne Dukes
for the 1922 and 1923 college football seasons.
in the Pioneer Player category. He was also selected on Princeton's All-Century Team in December 1999.
Ballin died on Christmas Day 1979 in Clearwater, Florida
, at age 86.
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
from 1912 to 1914 and was a consensus first-team All-American in both 1913 and 1914. He was inducted into 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 1973.
Early years
A native of New York City, Ballin attended the Lawrenceville SchoolLawrenceville School
The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational, independent preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 located on in the historic community of Lawrenceville, in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, U.S., five miles southwest of Princeton....
before enrolling at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He made the Second Testimonial honor roll at Lawrenceville in April 1909.
Princeton
Ballin later recalled that he was "young and underdeveloped" when he enrolled at Princeton. He had been unable to make the varsity football team at Lawrenceville and qualified for the fourth and final unit of Princeton's freshman football team in 1911.In 1912, Ballin played as a substitute tackle on Princeton's varsity football team. It was as a junior in 1913 that Ballin became a star. Playing at the right tackle position, Ballin was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1913. He was selected as a first-team All-American by, among others, Walter Camp
Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football...
in Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
, University of Michigan Coach Fielding H. Yost, football historian Parke H. Davis
Parke H. Davis
Parke Hill Davis was an American football player, coach and historian who retroactively named the national championship teams in American college football from the 1869 through the 1932 seasons. He also named co-national champions at the conclusion of the 1933 season...
, sports writer Tom Thorp
Tom Thorp
-References:...
, and the Trenton Evening-Times. In announcing his All-American team, Tom Thorp described Ballin's contributions as follows:
"Ballin of Princeton as a playing mate would leave the defensive strength of the eleven unquestionable. Ballin is a Hercules in size, who has a wonderfully quick charge and carries his efforts through at all times. The remarkable defense shown by the Tigers under tbe shadow of their own goal posts was due to a great extent to the almost superhuman efforts of Ballin. In speed and aggressiveness, he would prove a leader of any organization in the country today. Time and time again when his end would be spilled by the opposing backs going down under kicks, he broke through and sped down the field and made the tackle almost as soon as the ball had been caught. In opening holes for his backs he was without an equal."
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...
r Charles Brickley
Charles Brickley
Charles Edward Brickley was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the Johns Hopkins University in 1915, at Boston College from 1916 to 1917, and at Fordham University in 1920 with Joseph DuMoe as co-coach, compiling a career college football record of 22–9...
later recalled that Ballin was the hardest-hitting player he ever faced. Brickley said of Ballin:
"And the hardest-hitting player I went up against was Ballin ... In that game against Princeton [in 1913], which waa played in a sea of mud, official statistics verified by a correct counting of my bruises show that I was knocked down seventy-eight times. Thirty-eight times it was Ballin who was the catapult force that took me off my pins. Ballin weighed 220 pounds. I tipped the scales at 180. When the game was over I had gone down to 168."
At the meeting of the Princeton football on December 4, 1913, Ballin was elected as the captain of the 1914 football team. At age 20, he was one of the youngest players ever chosen as captain of Princeton's football team. As captain of the 1914 team, Ballin played every minute of every game for Princeton. In recognition of his contributions in 1914, Ballin was selected as a first-team All-American by 21 of 26 recognized selectors, including Walter Camp, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...
(selected based on the votes of 175 "prominent newspapermen of the country"), Walter Eckersall
Walter Eckersall
Walter "Eckie" Eckersall was an American football player, official, and sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.-Early life:...
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Frank G. Menke
Frank G. Menke
Frank Grant Menke was an American newspaper reporter, author, and sports historian. He wrote for the Hearst Newspapers from 1912 to 1932 and his articles appeared daily in 300 newspapers across the country. He was billed by the Hearst syndicate as "America's Foremost Sport Writer"...
, sporting editor of the International News Service, the New York Herald, and James P. Sinnot of the New York Evening Mail.
Ballin is also remembered as the last Princeton football player to play the game without a helmet. Ballin reportedly considered the helmet to be a distraction. According to newspaper accounts of the time, Ballin was "known to the sport-following public of the United States as Nig Ballin."
Football coach
After graduating from Princeton, Ballin became a football coach at Lafayette CollegeLafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
. In May 1916, he returned to Princeton as an assistant football coach.
Following the entry of the United States into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Ballin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
; he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1917. In the fall of 1917, Ballin was assigned to Fort Crockett
Fort Crockett
Fort Crockett is a government reservation on Galveston Island overlookingthe Gulf of Mexico originally built as a defense installation to protect the city and harbor of Galveston and to secure the entrance to Galveston Bay,...
on Galveston Island
Galveston Island
Galveston Island is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf coast in the United States, about 50 miles southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston....
, where played on the Fort Crockett football team. In December 1918, Lieutenant Ballin coached a football team made up of Marines from the Eight Regiment of the Third Provisional Brigade, United States Marine Corps.
In the fall of 1919, after completing his military service, Ballin returned to his position as an assistant football coach at Princeton.
In 1921, Ballin was hired as "director of football tactics" at Shady Side Academy
Shady Side Academy
Shady Side Academy is a private, secular coeducational PK-12 preparatory school located on three campuses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, established in 1883.- Campuses :Shady Side Academy has three campuses in Pittsburgh....
and led the team to a one-loss season. In 1922, Ballin became the head football coach at Duquesne University
Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened its doors as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. Ballin continued as head coach for the Duquesne Dukes
Duquesne Dukes
The Duquesne Dukes are the athletic teams of Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Duquesne has played men's basketball only in NCAA Division I and has played football as a club team from 1891–1894, 1896–1903, 1913–1914, and 1920–1928, in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ...
for the 1922 and 1923 college football seasons.
Later years and death
After retiring from coaching, Ballin worked as a field engineer in Pittsburgh. In May 1973, Ballin was elected to the College Football Hall of FameCollege 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 the Pioneer Player category. He was also selected on Princeton's All-Century Team in December 1999.
Ballin died on Christmas Day 1979 in Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
, at age 86.
See also
- 1913 College Football All-America Team1913 College Football All-America TeamThe 1913 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1913...
- 1914 College Football All-America Team1914 College Football All-America TeamThe 1914 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1914. The organizations that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp...