Bart Macomber

Franklin Bart Macomber (September 4, 1894 – December 19, 1971) was an American football player. He played halfback and quarterback for the University of Illinois from 1914 to 1916 and helped the school to its first national football championship and consecutive undefeated seasons in 1914 and 1915. He later played professional football for the Canton Bulldogs and Youngstown Patricians. He was also the coach and owner of the Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast professional football league founded in 1926. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1972.

Biography

Early years at Oak Park A native of Oak Park, Illinois. His father, Frank Macomber, had once been the mayor of Oak Park. Macomber played high school football for Hall of Fame coach Bob Zuppke at Oak Park High School. Macomber played on three consecutive undefeated teams at Oak Park and once kicked 16 extra points in a single game against Chicago Englewood in October 1911. In 1911, Zuppke persuaded the team from St. John's of Danvers, Massachusetts, one of the top high school teams in the east, to travel to Chicago for what was billed as a match for the "national interscholastic football title." Oak Park won the game 17–0, and the Chicago Daily News reported: "The winners outclassed the eastern men using open style of football. The visitors played the old style football, hammering Oak Park's line on nearly every play … [while] Macomber used the forward pass combined with trick formations with great success." Zuppke's Oak Park team was considered one of the best in the country, and he scheduled several other intersectional games, all of which were won by Oak Park. The scores of the intersectional games played by Zuppke and Macomber follow: December 26, 1910: Oak Park defeats Wenatchee (Seattle), 22–0 December 31, 1910: Oak Park defeats Washington (Portland), 6–3 December 2, 1911: Oak Park defeats St John's (Danvers, Mass), 17–0 November 30, 1912: Oak Park defeats Everett (Mass), 32–14 Macomber was selected as a first-team All-American in 1915. In naming Macomber to his All-American team, Walter Camp praised Macomber's "kicking and field generalship." Macomber also handled kicking duties at Illinois. Macomber was also selected in 1916 as a second-team All-American quarterback by Eckersall and sports writer, Paul Purman, and as a first-team All-American quarterback by Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost.

The "greatest football upset of all time" Zuppke and Macomber combined for five undefeated seasons, three at Oak Park High School (1910–1912) and two at Illinois (1914–1915). However, in Macomber's senior year, the Illini lost three games to Colgate, Ohio State and Chicago. Late in the 1916 season, Illinois was scheduled to play the west's top team, the University of Minnesota. Minnesota had beaten Iowa 67–0, Wisconsin 54–0, and Chicago (a team that beat Illinois) 49–0.

According to a 1964 account of the game published by Sports Illustrated, Macomber called for a spread formation against Minnesota, "employed in this game for the first time by any team." According to Grayson's account, "Macomber untied his shoes, broke the string on his shoulder pads, lost his headgear, miscalled signals —- anything to kill time. It easily was his greatest role as an actor." A March 1917 advertisement for the Orpheum vaudeville show appearing in Madison, Wisconsin promoted appearances by Kenneth Loane, Hoyt's Minstrels, and "Bart Macomber, The Famous Halfback in SONGS & STORIES."

Macomber also went on to play professional football with the Youngstown Patricians in 1917.

Macomber also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I.

In 1926, Macomber was the owner, coach, and director of the Oakland Oaks in the newly formed Pacific Coast Professional Football League. Macomber's team, the first professional football team in Oakland, was short-lived playing only five games as follows: November 7, 1926: 0–10 loss to the Hollywood Generals, played at Oakland Baseball Park with 4,000 in attendance November 14, 1926: 3–0 win over the San Francisco Tigers, played at Ewing Field in San Francisco November 21, 1926: 10–9 win over the Los Angeles Angels, played at Oakland Baseball Park with 1,200 in attendance December 5, 1926: 23–7 win over the San Francisco Tigers played at Oakland Baseball Park with 3,000 in attendance December 12, 1926: 0–7 loss to the Hollywood Generals, played at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles

Later life After retiring from football, Macomber moved to Portland, Oregon. Macomber died in Oregon in 1971 and was posthumously inducted the following year into the College Football Hall of Fame.