Percy Haughton

Bio

The Columbia coach was near death on October 27, 1924. Percy Haughton's final words were ones of gratitude and respect for his players. Just before the end, Haughton whispered, "Tell the squad I'm proud of them." Haughton was a gifted coach in a career that stretched a path from 1899 to 1924 and included tenures at Cornell (1899-1900), Harvard (1908-1916) and Columbia (1923-1924). His overall record was 96-17-6, and his Harvard teams enjoyed an unbeaten streak (30-0-3) of 33 games in 1911-15. With the Crimson, Haughton was 71-7-5 over nine seasons. He won national titles in 1910, 1912 and 1913. Haughton had starred with Harvard in his playing days, and even then, his innovative mind was evident. He would become the first to deploy the hidden-ball trick and the "Mouse Trap" play, in which his defense would allow the enemy through the line before chopping him down from the side. Trap blocking is still in use today. One aspect of Haughton's career that is myth rather than fact was that he strangled a Bulldog in the locker room before an 1908 game with Yale. There is no evidence to support this legend. In his book, "Football, and how to watch it", Percy wrote, "Football is a miniature war game played under somewhat more civilized rules of conduct, in which the team becomes the military force of the school or university it represents."