page_title: Hank Crisp
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Hank Crisp / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Hank Crisp, VPI football player
context_page_description: Henry Gorham Crisp was an American football, basketball, baseball and track coach and college athletics administrator. In spite of an accident when he was 13 years old that resulted in the loss of his right hand, Crisp went on to letter in football, basketball and track at both Hampden–Sydney College and Virginia Tech - then known primarily as VPI.
  After completing his collegiate career, Crisp began his long coaching career at the University of Alabama. There he served as the head basketball coach, baseball coach, track coach, as a line coach with the football team and as athletic director. Crisp also served as an assistant and interim head coach with the Miami Seahawks and as a line coach at Tulane.
context_section_description: Henry "Hank" Gorham Crisp was born on December 10, 1896, at Crisp, North Carolina. At the age of five, Crisp moved with his family to Falkland, North Carolina where his father operated a retail store. At the age of 13, he lost his right hand as a result of an accident that occurred as he helped his father fill a silo. After he graduated from Blackstone Military Academy in 1914, Crisp enrolled at Hampden–Sydney College where he played under Charles A. Bernier on the Tigers' football team. After his first game against VMI, one of the Keydets' coaches, impressed by Crisp's performance, told coach Bernier, "Why don't you cut one hand off all your players?"
  After two years at Hampden–Sydney, Crisp transferred to VPI (now Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University or Virginia Tech) after the 1916 season and followed coach Bernier who took the position as the Gobblers head coach. While at VPI, Crisp lettered four years in football, three in basketball, one in track and also played as a pitcher on the baseball team.
  As a member of the Gobblers football team, he was the team captain (MVP) for the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SAIAA) champion 1918 VPI squad. The season was considered the best in VPI's history at the time. They did not win seven straight games again until 1967. Crisp was the quarterback on the 1919 team. In recognition of his accomplishments as an athlete at VPI, in 1987 Crisp was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame.
caption: Crisp at VPI
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