Alex Moffat revolutionized early kicking at Princeton University, inventing the spiral punt and dazzling opponents with unmatched, ambidextrous scoring that forever altered gridiron strategy.
Football Bio
September 22, 1862 – Alex Moffat was a former halfback from Princeton University.
The website footballfoundation.org calls Alex “collegiate football’s first great kicker.” Legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg said, “Moffat invented the spiral punt in 1881 and thereby changed the whole science of punting.”
Moffat captained his 1883 Princeton Tigers, and that season he proved worthy of the position. In that game against Harvard, Alex kicked 5 field goals, including two drop kicks with his right foot and two with his left! The final goal was scored from a place kick.
The Tigers won 7 of 8 games that season, with only the Yale Bulldogs defeating them in a 6-0 skirmish.
The Princeton captain was a solid tackler on defense for the Tigers and made few errors. Alex was a stellar runner and kicker.
Moffat’s incredible 1883 season ended with him totaling 7 touchdowns, 16 field goals, and seven point-after kicks.
The National Football Foundation enshrined Alex Moffat posthumously in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
Alex Moffat secured his enduring legacy as a true pioneer of the gridiron by transforming the fundamental mechanics of special teams. His remarkable versatility and invention of the spiral punt fundamentally advanced how future generations play football.
Football Fix: The Ambidextrous Arsenal
Moffat’s performance against Harvard in 1883 remains one of the most unique single-game feats in football history. In an era when the football was rounder and harder to control, executing a drop kick was difficult enough. Doing it twice with your dominant foot and twice with your non-dominant foot in the same game is a level of specialized athleticism that effectively demoralized the Harvard defense, as they never knew which side of his body to defend when he dropped back to kick.
Accolades and Football Accomplishments
- Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
- Credited with inventing the spiral punt in 1881, fundamentally changing the science of kicking.
- Captained the 1883 Princeton Tigers to a 7-1 record and a retroactive national championship share.
- Kicked 5 field goals in a single game against Harvard in 1883, remarkably executing drop kicks with both his right and left feet.
- Amassed an incredible 1883 season stat line for the era: 7 touchdowns, 16 field goals, and 7 point-after kicks.
- Universally recognized by historians as collegiate football’s “first great kicker.”
Reprinted in “Princeton Football” by Mark F. Bernstein, p. 14. Courtesy of a kind uploader to Wikimedia Commons
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