W. S. Whitney

W. S. Whitney was the head football coach of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team during the 1906 and 1907 seasons. He was the head coach at Georgia when the forward pass became legal and was the first coach at Georgia to implement passing plays. During his two season stint as head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, he compiled a 6-7-2 record (including the last three games of the 1907 season which were actually coached by Branch Bocock).

Whitney graduated from Syracuse University. In 1907, he was caught in the "Ringer" controversy. At that time, there were no football scholarships, but enthusiastic alumni often raised money to pay professional players who were referred to as "ringers." After the 1907 game with Georgia Tech, it was revealed that there were at least four ringers on the Georgia and Georgia Tech teams. Thereafter, Georgia removed known ringers from its team and Bull Whitney was forced to resign, handing the coaching duties over to Branch Bocock.

Related page

*Georgia Bulldogs football under Bull Whitney

ources

* [http://www.georgiadogs.com/attachments1/1566.pdf?SPSID=46724&SPID=3571&DB_OEM_ID=8800 Georgia "Football through the years"]
* [http://www.georgiadogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46724&SPID=3571&DB_OEM_ID=8800&ATCLID=523288 Georgia Head Coaches]
*Reed, Thomas Walter (1949). Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. "History of the University of Georgia; Chapter XVII: Athletics at the University from the Beginning Through 1947" [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c17?seq=70 imprint pages 3485-3491]
*

Note

The documentation on Bull Whitney maintained by the Georgia Bulldogs [http://www.georgiadogs.com/attachments1/1566.pdf?SPSID=46724&SPID=3571&DB_OEM_ID=8800] [http://www.georgiadogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46724&SPID=3571&DB_OEM_ID=8800&ATCLID=523288] states that he "came to the University in 1906 from North Carolina A&M, where he had gone undefeated the previous season"." Today, North Carolina A&M is NC State. Although NC State was coached by a man named Whitney in 1905, not only did it not enjoy an undefeated season (NC State was 4-1-1), but the NC State coach also had a different name, "George S. Whitney". [http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2492] [http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/northcarolinastate_database.htm] In addition, George Whitney was not a graduate of Syracuse, but was a graduate of Cornell University in 1901. [http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3170/11/008_11.pdf] . Thus, the official Georgia records seem to be in error.