Phil Draper

Phil Draper
Draper as a freshman at Williams, 1894
Profile
PositionsHalfback, Fullback
Personal information
Born(1875-04-03)April 3, 1875
Troy, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 28, 1945(1945-09-28) (aged 70)
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Listed height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
CollegeWilliams
Career history
Awards and highlights

Philip Henry Draper (April 3, 1875 – September 28, 1945) was an American football halfback and fullback from Troy, New York. After two seasons at Williams College, he starred for the Chicago Athletic Association, the Troy Laureates and two of the earliest professional clubs: the Watertown Red & Black and the 1902 All-Syracuse team that won the first World Series of Football.

Early life

Draper was born in Troy on April 3, 1875,[1] to Frederick Elliott Draper, junior partner in the cigar and tobacco firm Fitzpatrick & Draper, and Anne Jane Woodcock. He attended Troy's common and public schools, Troy Academy, and the Park Avenue Institute in Bridgeport, Connecticut, before entering Williams College.[2]

Football career

College and amateur

As a teenager, Draper gained football experience with his hometown team, the Troy Laureates, in 1891 and 1892, and with the Bridgeport YMCA in 1893.[3]

At Williams, he was a fullback on the 1894 and 1895 squads. Leaving college after only two years, he continued to play football, starting the 1896 season with a brief return to the Laureates[4] before joining the Chicago Athletic Association (CAA) football team in October.[5] He was made captain of the 1897 CAA team,[5] whose only loss and only points allowed that season were to undefeated Yale.[6]

He was expected to return to the CAA in 1898, but lingering effects of malaria contracted during a brief period of service in the Spanish–American War kept him out for much of that season.[5][7] When he resumed play in November, he was back with the Troy Laureates.[8] He remained with Troy through 1901.[3]

Professional

In 1902, he played for the Watertown Red & Black, then one of the top professional football clubs in the country.[9] When the first World Series of Football was organized at the end of the season and Watertown declined to participate, Draper and his Watertown backfield mates Billy Bottger and Harry Mason entered the tournament as members of a so-called "All-Syracuse" team. All-Syracuse won all three of its games to capture the championship.[9]

One of Draper's All-Syracuse teammates was Pop Warner, who remembered Draper in a 1927 article as "about as good a halfback as ever played the game".[10] Similar praise came from the team's organizer, Buck O'Neill, as related in 1934 by Harry March: "[O'Neill] declares Draper the finest player he has ever seen and that he would be even better today with the intricacies of the forward pass, both on offense and defense."[11]

Draper was back with Watertown in the following season of 1903. At this time he was listed at 5' 10" and 195 pounds.[3] The Red & Blacks entered that year's World Series, but lost the championship game to the Franklin Athletic Club.[12]

Career outside football

Draper enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1897 and served for about ten years, including in the Spanish–American War.[1][2] He worked for a time for a wholesale drug company and for his father's cigar and tobacco firm.[2] In 1907, he and a business partner established an insurance and bonding business under the name Draper & Higgins.[2] Draper was identified as a "general insurance agent" in a profile published in 1923.[1] He ran for comptroller of Troy in 1925, but was defeated in what was described as one of the closest races ever seen in the history of the city.[13] Shortly thereafter, he became the city's park superintendent.[14]

Personal life and family

Older brother Fred Draper played football and baseball at Williams[15] and became a New York state senator. Younger brother Louis LeGrand Draper played football at the same college.[15] Big Bill Edwards, in his 1916 book Football Days, opined, "The greatest three players from any one family that ever played the backfield would probably be the three Draper brothers—Louis, Phil and Fred. All went to Williams and all were stars; heavy, fast backs, who were good both on defense and offense, capable of doing an immense amount of work and never getting hurt."[16]

Phil married Sally Bryant Stimson in 1904 at Watertown; they had a son, Philip Henry Draper Jr., and a daughter, Emily.[2][17]

Draper died of a heart attack on September 28, 1945, at a veteran's hospital in The Bronx.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Prominent People of the Capital District. Albany, New York: Fort Orange Recording Bureau. 1923. p. 44.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Reynolds, Cuyler, ed. (1911). Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing. pp. 479–480.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Red and Black". Watertown Daily Times. Watertown, New York. September 19, 1903. p. 16 – via NYS Historic Newspapers.
  4. ↑ "Williams Weak in the Line". The Chicago Sunday Tribune. September 27, 1896. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 "Personnel of Thompson's Team". The Sunday Inter Ocean. Chicago. November 13, 1898. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Bold Claim of B. A. C." The Sunday Inter Ocean. Chicago. December 5, 1897. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Draper Won't Play". The South Bend Tribune. September 14, 1898. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Laureate B. C. 5, Yale L. S. 0". The Boston Daily Globe. November 25, 1898. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 PFRA Research. "The First Football World Series" (PDF). Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  10. ↑ "My Life in Football". The Pittsburgh Press. December 28, 1927. p. 25 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ March, Harry A. (1934). Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company. pp. 35–36.
  12. ↑ "Paper Cites P. H. Draper's Football Days". The Troy Record. Troy, New York. October 1, 1945. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Troy Re-elects Clinton Mayor". The Bennington Evening Banner. Bennington, Vermont. November 4, 1925. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Referee's Sporting Chat". The Berkshire Evening Eagle. Pittsfield, Massachusetts. January 7, 1926. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 "Troy Has Its Drapers". The Berkshire Evening Eagle. Pittsfield, Massachusetts. November 26, 1898. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Edwards, William H. (1916). Football Days: Memories of the Game and of the Men Behind the Ball. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company. p. 304.
  17. 1 2 "Phil Draper, Gridder, Dead". Syracuse Herald-Journal. Syracuse, New York. September 29, 1945. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
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