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Billy Suter

Suter, c. 1912
Biographical details
Born	(1874-12-10)December 10, 1874 Greensburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 31, 1946(1946-10-31) (aged 71) Bronxville, New York, U.S.
Playing career
Football
1893	Washington & Jefferson
1894	Penn State
1895–1898	Princeton
Baseball
1896–1899	Princeton
1904–1905	Wanderers (South Africa)
Position(s)	Quarterback (football) Outfielder (baseball)
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1899–1901	Sewanee
1902	Georgetown
Baseball
1899–1901	Sewanee
1902	Georgetown
Head coaching record
Overall	29–6–3 (football)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 SIAA (1899)

Herman Milton "Billy" Suter (December 10, 1874 – October 31, 1946) was an American football and baseball player, coach, referee, and athletic director. He was also a newspaper publisher.

Early life

Suter was born on December 10, 1874, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Henry Suter. Henry was from Sutersville, Pennsylvania, and died in 1883.

College

Suter was initiated into Pennsylvania Alpha in 1893 until 1897. Suter played for Washington & Jefferson, and the 1894 Penn State football team.

Princeton

He later enrolled at Princeton University. In 1895, as a member of the Princeton Tigers football team he once ran for a 95-yard touchdown against Harvard. Suter also captained the Princeton baseball team.

Coaching career

Sewanee

J. G. "Lady" Jayne, coach of the 1898 Sewanee team, also a Princeton grad, was hired to coach in North Carolina. Jayne recommended Suter, with whom he had roomed at Princeton. Suter coached the famed "Iron Men" of the 1899 Sewanee Tigers which went 12–0, outscored opponents 322 to 10, and won 5 games on a 6-day road trip all by shutout. It is recalled memorably with the phrase "...and on the seventh day they rested." The team's manager who planned the trip was Luke Lea.

Grantland Rice was a shortstop on the Vanderbilt baseball team at the same time as Suter coached Sewanee. Rice praised his value as a leader, "yet he was one of the strictest disciplinarians I've ever known." Suter was fond of using the quick kick and for yelling from the sidelines when such was discouraged or illegal. A documentary film about the Sewanee 1899 team was released in 2022, titled Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899.

Georgetown

Suter was assistant coach to Georgetown Blue and Gray in 1901, and coached for a year in 1902, going 7–3. He also coached Georgetown baseball team in 1902.

South Africa

Suter played for the Wanderers Baseball Club, in Transvaal, South Africa in 1903 and during the 1904–1905 inaugural league season. Salt Lake Telegram reported that Suter "formerly an outfielder on the Princeton team, leads the league in batting, with an average of .557, which is clouting them some. It is evident, however, that the spit ball has not as yet reached South Africa."

Officiating

Once while officiating a game between Bucknell and V. P. I. in 1906 in which Bucknell won 10 to 0, V. P. I. had an 80-yard touchdown run derailed by a holding call from Suter. Fans disagreed with the call and rushed the field after Suter, hitting Suter over the head with a cane on which was a V. P. I. flag. Players on both teams assisted Suter, and police eventually rushed in with revolvers drawn to restore order.

Publishing career

After coaching, Suter set up H M Suter Publishing Company in 1904 in Washington, D. C. for four years, before he became the publisher of the Nashville Tennessean from 1907 to 1912, where he gave Grantland Rice his first job as a sports writer. There was an interval between publishing jobs from 1915 to 1918. Suter was a book publisher in New York City during this period, and at the time of the First World War worked for the Foreign Press Cable Service Bureau of the Committee on Publish Information. Suter, former president Herbert Hoover, and others then acquired the Washington Herald at the end of 1919, for which Suter and one Walter S. Rogers was in charge until 1920. Suter throughout his life had once been publisher of the Herald, the Philadelphia Evening Times, The Elmira Advertiser and the Elmira Sunday Telegram. By 1924 he joined the New York City firm of Palmer, Suter, and Palmer which handled disposition of newspaper properties with an estimated value of $100 million.

Head coaching record

Football

References

1. ^ "Herman Suter, Ex-Publisher, Is Dead at 72" (PDF). The Herald Statesman. November 1, 1946.
2. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Roll #: 631; Volume #: Roll 0631 - Certificates: 46000-46249, 16 Nov 1918-18 Nov 1918.
3. The Shield phikappapsi.com
4. ^ Wendell Givens (2003). Ninety-Nine Iron: The Season Sewanee Won Five Games in Six Days. University of Alabama Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 9780817350628.
5. "New York Times". 1946.
6. "Guys Who Wear Gowns Once Were a Major Powerhouse". August 16, 1999.
7. "Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899", Misplaced Pages, December 9, 2022, retrieved January 22, 2023
8. "Head Coaches". Archived from the original on January 11, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
9. "Daily Princetonian, Volume 27, Number 17, 21 March 1902".
10. "Salt Lake Telegram". Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. 1905.
11. "V. P. I. Game Ends In Fight". The Atlanta Constitution. November 11, 1906. p. 2. Retrieved June 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
12. David Alter (September 9, 2014). "Alter Fills In The Gaps In Princeton Football Lore". Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
13. "Washington Herald Changes Hands". Paper: Devoted to the Manufacture, Sale and Use of Pulp and Paper. 25: 54. December 10, 1919.
14. "Suter Adds Telegram To Advertiser". Editor & Publisher. 53: 3. May 14, 1921.

External links

Media related to Billy Suter at Wikimedia Commons

• 1874 births
• 1946 deaths
• 19th-century players of American football
• American football quarterbacks
• American newspaper publishers (people)
• Baseball outfielders
• Georgetown Hoyas baseball coaches
• Georgetown Hoyas football coaches
• Penn State Nittany Lions football players
• Princeton Tigers football players
• Princeton Tigers baseball players
• Sewanee Tigers baseball coaches
• Sewanee Tigers football coaches
• Washington & Jefferson Presidents football players
• People from Greensburg, Pennsylvania
• Players of American football from Pennsylvania
• Journalists from Pennsylvania