Bob Torrey The Versatile Penn Quaker

July 12, 1878 - Henrico County, Virginia - The guard from the University of Pennsylvania for the 1902 to 1905 seasons, Bob Torrey was born.

In his bio on the NFF’s website it is brought up that after the 1905 Penn Swarthmore game President Teddy Roosevelt must have gasped at the photograph that was printed in the newspaper. The photo was that of a beat-up and battered face of Swarthmore guard Robert "Tiny" Maxwell.  The President was incensed as Football violence had gone far enough. Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport, and his ultimatum was answered by sweeping rule changes to the game. Maxwell's facial reconstruction was the result of a play in an 11-4 Swarthmore loss to the powerful Penn Quakers.

A game that the National Football Foundation states changed the course of football history. Robert Torrey, the Penn captain, was the center playing opposite Maxwell that day. Now, though he did play a part in it, Torrey cannot be blamed for Maxwell's condition, as it was no secret that the Penn strategy that day was for the line to double and triple-team Maxwell, the key to a Quaker victory to finish the season unbeaten. The plan worked, and Penn did claim an undefeated record in 1905, winning 12 as well as a single tie 6-6 game with Lafayette.

A year earlier, when the Quakers sported a 12-0-0 record, Swarthmore had been the only team to score against them. For certain, the Penn teams in those early years at the turn of the 20th Century were powerhouses in the rough and tumble days of gridiron play. Torrey was among the best of the nation's linemen and won All-America honors following the 1905 season.

The National Football Foundation selected Bill Torrey for entrance into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.