Henry Hobbs

Henry Homer Hobbs (May 10, 1887 – June 28, 1931) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Yale University and was selected as a consensus All-American at the tackle position in 1909. He also served as the head coach at Amherst College from 1910 to 1913, compiling a 13–17–2 record with the Lord Jeffs.

During World War I, Hobbs was active with the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the American Field Service. When the United States entered the war, he served in the United States Army and was put in charge of the procurement, storage, and distribution of lubricating oils for the American Expeditionary Forces.

Early years Hobbs was born in 1887 in Slatersville, Rhode Island. His father, Charles Henry Hobbs, owned a knitting mill in Palmer, Massachusetts. Hobbs attended preparatory school at Andover and was captain of the Andover football team in 1905.

College football player Hobbs enrolled at Dartmouth College during the 1906-1907 academic year and played on the Dartmouth Big Green football team in 1906. He subsequently transferred to Yale and joined Yale's football team in 1907. He was selected as a consensus All-American at the tackle position in 1909. Hobbs was also a "star hammer thrower" for Yale. He was the head coach at Amherst from 1910 to 1913, compiling a 13–17–2 record. In January 1914, Hobbs announced that he would not return as Amherst's football coach in the fall of 1914. Hobss stated that he intended to focus on his business duties.

Business career and military service While coaching the Amherst football team, Hobbs was employed in a department store in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1910 to 1911 and in the bond department of Hayden, Stone & Company in Boston from 1911 to 1913. Congressman Andrus was reported to be "disconsolate" over the decision of his "favorite daughter" to marry a man who was "at present 'aisle manager' for a department store in Springfield, Mass." Hobbs replied in the press that he had $100,000 of his own and that he intended to go into business for himself.

Hobbs and his wife had a daughter, Eleanore Bourne Hobbs, born in August 1912. The couple divorced in 1916, and Hobbs was not permitted to see his daughter for 13 years. In 1929, Hobbs won a habeas corpus action requiring his ex-wife to allow him to see his 17-year-old daughter.

Hobbs was married in 1928 to Edna Shirk.