Charley Barrett

One of the top players of pre-World War I college football was Charley Barrett of Cornell University. Charlie was a standout and we put together this one minute video to remember him by.

When we look back at the great player in early collegiate football the name of Charles Barrett of the Cornell Big Red comes up repeatedly. Charley was a triple threat according to the FootballFoundation.org website. Whether it was tossing a pass, running around the end, drop kicking, punting, or even bucking the line Barrett was counted on to perform at a high level. Cornell’s opponents were often caught guessing as to which talent Charley Barrett would perform from play to play, would he run, pass, or kick? Perhaps this was best illustrated in Barrett's final college football game. The Big Red trailed the Penn Quakers by a score of 9–0, but Barrett scored 24 points to lead the Big Red to a 24–9 victory scoring on runs of 40, 25, and three yards, and then drop-kicked a field goal and three extra points. Charley Barrett was selected as the consensus first-team All-American quarterback in both 1914 and 1915. He was also selected by his teammates as the captain of the 1915 football team. The New York Times called him "the greatest football player ever developed at Cornell. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958.

The banner photo is of Charley Barrett of Cornell circa 1914 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites mentioned above including the National Football Foundation and Wikipedia.