Football and Track Achievements
Josiah Calvin McCracken, nicknamed Joe, was born in Lincoln, Tennessee. His earliest known Ulster-Scots ancestors settled in Pennsylvania before the French & Indian War (Seven Years' War). When Joe was 8 years old, his parents moved to Garnett, Kansas, and by the age of 17, the family was living in Sterling, Kansas. Joe excelled at both football as well as track & field events while a school boy in Kansas. He was heavily recruited by the Universities of Kansas, Cornell and Penn. The 1896 University of Kansas football coach was Hector Cowan a Princeton graduate, an 1889 Walter Camp All American football player and a future member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Cowan in addition to coaching KU football was a Presbyterian minister. Joe McCracken was raised in a devout Presbyterian family. After living on the plains of Kansas for fourteen years, Joe in 1896 transferred from Cooper College, a Presbyterian institution (known today as Sterling College) along with University of Kansas transfer John Outland to attend the University of Pennsylvania and played football under future College Football Hall of Fame coach George Washington Woodruff. Both McCracken and Outland would graduate from Penn with degrees in medicine. Unlike Cornell and Penn, the University of Kansas did not have a Medical School in 1896.
While at Penn, McCracken was an all around student athlete, playing varsity football four years, track four years (captain his senior year) and was a member of the gymnastics team.
Joe was named to Walter Camp's College All American football team on three occasions. He was a 3rd team All American in 1897; a 2nd team All American in 1898 and in 1899 a 1st team All American . McCracken played primarily as an offensive fullback and defensive guard. During 1899 he played alongside John Outland (Outland Trophy) and A. R. Kennedy, another transfer students from the University of Kansas football program. McCracken, Outland and Kennedy were known around Philadelphia's Franklin Field as the "Kansas Musketeers". During McCracken's four years of playing football at Penn (1897-1900) the football team compiled a 47-5-2 record.
On May 31, 1898, Joe set a World Record in the hammer throw with a distance of 46.83m (153–8 ft) at a meet in New Jersey. After college he won a silver and bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics .
McCracken was elected president of his class all four years at Penn, was president of the Christian Association three years, president of the Houston Club one year and an associate editor of the student newspaper, The Pennsylvanian. A New York Times article of April 11, 1901 described him as "the University of Pennsylvania's best all around athlete and the most popular man at the university..." When Joe graduated in 1901 with his medical degree and while receiving his diploma the whole audience rose to their feet and loudly applauded, an ovation never before given in the history of the University.
Read more about this topic: Josiah Mc Cracken, Early Life
Famous quotes containing the words football, track and/or achievements:
“Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)
“The weary sun hath made a golden set,
And by the bright track of his fiery car
Gives token of a goodly day tomorrow.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)