Dan Blake
{{Short description|American football player and coach (1882–1953)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox college football player
|name=Dan Blake
|image=Dan Blake (1906).jpg
|image_size=150px
|caption=Blake cropped from the 1906 team picture
|school=Vanderbilt Commodores
|birth_date={{Birth date|1882|5|22}}
|birth_place=Cuero, Texas, U.S.
|death_date={{Death date and age|mf=y|1953|9|7|1882|5|22}}
|death_place=Gary, Indiana, U.S.
|currentposition=Halfback
|pastschools=Vanderbilt (1903–1906)
|height_ft=5
|height_in=11
|weight_lb=165
|highschool=Bowen School
|class=Graduate
|highlights=
- SIAA championship (1904, 1905, 1906)
- All-Southern (1904, 1905, 1906)
}}
Daniel Bigelow Blake Jr. (May 22, 1882 – September 7, 1953) was an American football player and coach.
Early life
Blake was born on May 22, 1882, in Cuero, Texas, to Daniel Bigelow Blake Sr. and Mary Clara Weldon. Dan Sr. was a physician and once president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine.{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFlJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA29|journal=The Doctor's Who's Who|volume=12|title=Blake, Daniel Bigelow|author=Charles Wells Moulton|publisher=The Saalfield Publishing Co|date=1906}}
College career
Blake was a prominent halfback and end for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt Commodores football teams from 1903 to 1906, winning multiple Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) titles. His two brothers, Bob and Vaughan, also played on those teams. Dan, Bob, and Vaughan were captains of the 1906, 1907, and 1908 Vanderbilt teams respectively. Dan Blake was selected consensus All-Southern in 1906. At Vanderbilt he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity and stood 5 feet 11 and weighed some 165 pounds.{{cite journal|title=Vanderbilt|journal=Caduceus of Kappa Sigma|year=1905|volume=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AQTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA377|page=377}}
Blake played end in 1903, the same position as his brother, Bob.
Image:1904Vandy.jpg. Dan is top row, second from left]]
One writer in 1904 still contended Blake, who "played left half for Vanderbilt, '04, being taken from left end, which position he played in '03. End is his position; he is heavy, weighing about 170, is fast, a good tackler, advances the ball well, and is a fair punter."{{cite journal|journal=Caduceus of Kappa Sigma|page=211|title=An All-K.S. Football Team|author=Myles P. O'Connor|year=1904|volume=19|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VwETAAAAIAAJ&q=blake&pg=PA311}}
Blake was captain of the 1906 team, considered one of the school's greatest.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1944523//|work=Atlanta Constitution|title=Brown Calls Vanderbilt '06 Best Eleven South Ever Had|date=February 19, 1911|accessdate=March 8, 2015|page=52|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Dan made the field goal to tie Michigan 4 to 4, a score that would remain until the final two minutes saw a Michigan touchdown.{{cite news|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|title=Garrels' Big Run Brings Victory|date=November 4, 1906|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2054559/chicago_daily_tribune/|accessdate=March 24, 2015|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}
Later life
Blake went on to coach at Hopkinsville High School at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. While there he was manager of the electric light and gas plants of the Kentucky Public Service Company.{{cite news|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069395/1912-10-01/ed-1/seq-4/print/image_681x713_from_0%2C3710_to_3445%2C7322/|newspaper=Hopkinsville Kentuckian|date=October 1, 1912|page=4|title=Dan Blake}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave}}
{{1905 College Football Consensus All-Southerns}}
{{1906 College Football Composite All-Southerns}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Dan}}
Category:American football ends
Category:American football halfbacks
Category:Vanderbilt Commodores football players
Category:High school football coaches in Kentucky
Category:All-Southern college football players