 Roper in 1909 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1880-08-22)August 22, 1880 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 1933(1933-12-19) (aged 53) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1899–1902 | Princeton |
| Positions | End (football) Outfielder (baseball) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1903–1904 | VMI |
| 1906–1908 | Princeton |
| 1909 | Missouri |
| 1910–1911 | Princeton |
| 1915–1916 | Swarthmore |
| 1919–1930 | Princeton |
| Basketball | |
| 1902–1903 | Princeton |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 112–38–18 (football) 8–7 (basketball) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Football 4national (1906, 1911, 1920, 1922) 1MVC (1909) | |
| College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1951 (profile) | |
William Winston Roper (August 22, 1880 – December 10, 1933) was an Americanfootball,basketball, andbaseball player and coach.
He served as the head football coach at theVirginia Military Institute (1903–1904),Princeton University (1906–1908, 1910–1911, 1919–1930), theUniversity of Missouri (1909), andSwarthmore College (1915–1916), compiling a careercollege football record of 112–38–18. Roper'sPrinceton Tigers football teams of 1906, 1911, 1920, and 1922 have been recognized asnational champions, and his 89 wins are the most of any coach in the history of the program.
Roper was also the headbasketball coach at Princeton for one season in 1902–03, tallying a mark of 8–7. Roper played football as anend, basketball, and baseball as anoutfielder at Princeton, from which he graduated in 1902. He was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.
Roper served on the NCAA Football Rules Committee.[1]
Roper was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 22, 1880. He attended theWilliam Penn Charter School where he played football, basketball, and baseball, and continued all three sports in college atPrinceton University.[1]
Roper was the sixth head football coach atVirginia Military Institute (VMI) inLexington, Virginia, serving for two seasons, from 1903 to 1904, and compiling a record of 5–6. Roper had planned to study medicine, but was unable to, for health reasons. While a coach at VMI, he studied law, and later in life he became qualified as an attorney.[1]
In 1906, Roper was the head coach at Princeton and held that position through the 1908 season. During his first stint as the head coach at Princeton, he compiled a 21–4–4 record.
Roper coached football at theUniversity of Missouri for the 1909 season, where his team went 7–0–1 and won theMissouri Valley Conference title.
His second stint at Princeton lasted from 1910 to 1911. During that tenure, he compiled a 15–1–2 record.
In 1915 and 1916, Roper coached at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. In his two seasons at Swarthmore, the team compiled a record of 11–4–1.
In his final stint at Princeton, Roper held his longest-tenured coaching position. His term lasted from 1919 to 1930, but ended due to an illness. He continues to hold the record for most wins by a Princeton coach.
Princeton University's highest honor for a male athlete, theWilliam Winston Roper Trophy, is named in his honor and awarded annually.[2] Some of the more recent honorees have included NFL football playerDennis Norman (’01), lacrosse playerRyan Boyle (‘04), Olympic and world champion fencerSoren Thompson (‘05), MLB baseball playerWill Venable (‘05), squash playerYasser El Halaby ('06), and lacrosse playerPeter Trombino ('07).[3]
In 1912,United States PresidentWoodrow Wilson appointed Roper as the appraiser of merchandise at thePort of Philadelphia.[4] He was later a member of thePhiladelphia City Council and the local manager of thePrudential Insurance Company. As a politician, he worked successfully to repealprohibition, though he himself was a teetotaller, and to change Pennsylvania'sblue laws, which did not allow sports on Sundays.[1]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMI Keydets(Independent)(1903–1904) | |||||||||
| 1903 | VMI | 2–1 | |||||||
| 1904 | VMI | 3–5 | |||||||
| VMI: | 5–6 | ||||||||
| Princeton Tigers(Independent)(1906–1908) | |||||||||
| 1906 | Princeton | 9–0–1 | |||||||
| 1907 | Princeton | 7–2 | |||||||
| 1908 | Princeton | 5–2–3 | |||||||
| Missouri Tigers(Missouri Valley Conference)(1909) | |||||||||
| 1909 | Missouri | 7–0–1 | 4–0–1 | 1st | |||||
| Missouri: | 7–0–1 | ||||||||
| Princeton Tigers(Independent)(1910–1911) | |||||||||
| 1910 | Princeton | 7–1 | |||||||
| 1911 | Princeton | 8–0–2 | |||||||
| Swarthmore Quakers(Independent)(1915–1916) | |||||||||
| 1915 | Swarthmore | 5–3 | |||||||
| 1916 | Swarthmore | 6–1–1 | |||||||
| Swarthmore: | 11–4–1 | ||||||||
| Princeton Tigers(Independent)(1919–1930) | |||||||||
| 1919 | Princeton | 4–2–1 | |||||||
| 1920 | Princeton | 6–0–1 | |||||||
| 1921 | Princeton | 4–3 | |||||||
| 1922 | Princeton | 8–0 | |||||||
| 1923 | Princeton | 3–3–1 | |||||||
| 1924 | Princeton | 4–2–1 | |||||||
| 1925 | Princeton | 5–1–1 | |||||||
| 1926 | Princeton | 5–1–1 | |||||||
| 1927 | Princeton | 6–1 | |||||||
| 1928 | Princeton | 5–1–2 | |||||||
| 1929 | Princeton | 2–4–1 | |||||||
| 1930 | Princeton | 1–5–1 | |||||||
| Princeton: | 89–28–16 | ||||||||
| Total: | 112–38–18 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| National | |
|---|---|
| Academics | |
| Other | |
