Franklin Morse Franklin Blake Morse ( May 4 , 1873 – May 27 , 1929 ) was an All - American football player . Morse played halfback for Princeton University and was selected as an All - American in 1893 . He also served as coach of Princeton ' s football team in 1896 . He later became a sports writer from 1904 – 1929 , serving as a sports editor for the Associated Press and a columnist for the " San Francisco Chronicle " . He was also the model for Charles Dana Gibson ' s popular drawing , " The Halfback . " Early years . Morse was born at the American Consulate in Kobe , Japan where his family owned a large factory and " an immense amount of property . " All - American halfback at Princeton . Morse attended Princeton University where he played for the football team from 1891 to 1894 . 1893 season . Prior to the 1893 season , Morse ' s father , William Horace Morse , was opposed to having his son play and petitioned the school to have him removed from the team . In November 1893 , the " Philadelphia Inquirer " reported : " Princetonians are greatly elated over the return Frank Morse , half - back on last year ' s team . Frank ' s father is at present opposed to his playing , and unless he retracts the faculty will prohibit him from so doing , as one college rule states that no student will play with a ' Varsity organization without the consent of his parents . . . . Morse played quarter - back in the ' 91 team and won laurels at half - back in the Thanksgiving game last year . " Though press accounts do not indicate how his father ' s objections were overcome , Morse was the starting halfback for the 1893 Princeton football team and was named an All - American at the end of the season . The 1893 Princeton team was known as the " perfect team " and filled five of eleven spots on the 1893 All - American team — Morse at halfback , Philip King at quarterback , Art " Beef " Wheeler at guard , Langdon " Biffy " Lea at tackle , and Thomas " Doggie " Trenchard at end . Three of those players , Wheeler , Lea and King have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . In November 1893 , " The World " of New York published a full - page profile on the physical conditioning of the Princeton and Yale football teams . The paper noted that Morse was known for his ability to avoid serious injury despite his " daring and reckless " somersaults : " Morse and Ward are fixtures at halfback . Morse has had considerable trouble in convincing his people that he still needs vigorous exercise . He is without doubt the most daring and reckless half - back on the field . He possesses a singular faculty of preserving a certain amount of self - control throughout all of his somersaults and never receives but temporary injuries . " In 1892 , Morse was knocked unconscious by a tackle in the Princeton - Penn game and had to be carried from the field . In 1893 , a newspaper described one of Morse ' s leaps in his second Princeton - Penn game : " Morse made a tremendous leap in the air to go over Osgood , but the latter caught a foot and the pretty play was spoiled . Cheer after cheer rang out from both sections . " The most famous play of Morse ' s career came in the 1893 Princeton - Yale game , played before a large crowd at Manhattan Field on Thanksgiving Day . With the ball at midfield , Morse ran for the sideline and caught a pass from Dougal Ward . Morse was running in the open field for a touchdown when he stumbled . Nevertheless , the play was " the longest pass on record , a brand new play " that caused football experts to evaluate the efficacy of long passing and " eventually brought the forward pass into the game . " 1894 season . In 1894 , Morse was moved to quarterback to replace King . Newspaper accounts indicate that Morse ' s move to the quarterback position was less than successful . One paper noted pointed to the quarterback position as Princeton ' s downfall and noted , " Morse , who by the way is a splendid half , was anything but a success in the position . " Morse was sidelined due to illness in the middle of the season with what was described as " a threatened attack of pneumonia . " Morse returned to the lineup for the Penn game and put on a display that drew praise for his " pluck " but also dismay at the physical beating he took . The " New York World " reported as follows : " Morse and Ward were both cripples . I don ' t believe in talking about the roughness of the game . Any man who goes into it must expect anything and take it , but Morse was tackled altogether beyond the pale of pardon , more than once . When a man gets as far gone as he was and nothing but his indomitable pluck allowed him to stand , somebody should have had the power and the will to force him to leave the game . But he died fighting . . . " Despite the beating , Morse was Princeton ' s leading rusher in the 1894 Penn game , and his 25 - yard run was the longest of the game . However , the beating took a permanent toll on Morse . After the game , " The New York Times " reported on Morse ' s retirement from football : " Franklin B . Morse , ' 95 , Princeton ' s greatest half back , has gone out of training and quit the game . This move was not taken by Morse until it was forced upon him . He has been ill for some time and was really unable to go in the game with Pennsylvania , although he played in that game as long as he could stand on his feet . Since then he has been on the field only a few times , and had to leave the game each time . The whole student body deeply regrets Morse ' s inability to continue playing . " Model for Charles Dana Gibson ' s " The Halfback " . Morse also gained fame as the model for a famous drawing by Charles Dana Gibson titled " The Halfback . " In the 1890s , Gibson asked the handsome blond Morse to pose for him . The resulting portrait , titled " The Halfback , " gained tremendous popularity and prints of the portrait were reportedly " hung in most college rooms throughout the country in those days . " Morse graduated from Princeton in June 1895 with a Bachelor of Arts degree . Football coach . In 1896 , Morse took over as Princeton ' s regular football coach . He had served a coaching function as far back as 1891 , when " The New York Times " described his role as follows : " Frank Morse , ' 95 , coached the players in today ' s practice and found many points in the play to criticize . " " The World " of New York in 1896 said of Morse : " Coach Morse is a very wise young man . In the first place he was perhaps the greatest half - back that Princeton ever turned out . He was a star in the team of ' 93 which is known as the ' perfect team . ' This is his first year as a regular coach , and he is said to be one of the best that the New Jersey university has had . " Coach Morse impressed reporters before his first Princeton - Yale game by asserting that his players were in fine physical condition " after months of scientific training " : " It is really refreshing to hear a man who knows his player perfectly say , on the eve of the great game of the year , that his men are in perfect fettle . Moreover , he says frankly that the team is one of the best that Princeton has ever had , which is another violation of precedent . " Later years . After coaching the 1896 Princeton team , Morse began a career in the Asian importing business . Morse ' s mother , Sarah V . Morse , was the controlling shareholder of the Wall Street firm of Smith , Baker & Co . - - one of the country ' s leading importers of Japanese goods . The company operated a large factory in Kobe , Japan . Morse spent several years living in Asia working in the family ' s business . In 1905 , Morse returned to the public eye as the result of a divorce involving charges of physical abuse and desertion . Morse ' s wife was described as the beautiful daughter of an aristocratic Georgia family . The two met at the 1902 Princeton - Yale football game . According to his wife , " We fell in love and he proposed marriage shortly afterward . " They married in December 1903 in Chicago , and on returning to New York , the couple kept their marriage a secret . During the divorce proceedings , his wife told the press that Morse insisted on keeping the marriage a secret because Morse " feared his mother ' s anger . " After a year of secrecy , Morse ' s wife refused to continue to keep the marriage a secret and moved to Cleveland until Morse could come to terms with his mother . When she returned to New York , she alleged that Morse became abusive and then deserted her . Morse ' s wife told the press she had been compelled to live on the charity of others and had " actually gone hungry at times . " In December 1905 , a warrant was issued for Morse ' s arrest , and the details of the allegations were published in the eastern press . Morse spent the last 25 years of his life as a sports writer . After spending many years in Asia , Morse moved to San Francisco where he became the western sports editor for the Associated Press . After several years with the Associated Press , Morse became a sports columnist for the " San Francisco Chronicle " , " Morning Oregonian " of Portland , Oregon and " The Evening News " of San Jose , California . Morse died in his sleep at his summer cottage in Forest Knolls , California in May 1929 , aged 57 . Morse died of heart disease , which was aggravated by lifting heavy rocks at his home . Sports writer Lawrence Perry eulogized Morse in his nationally syndicated column as one of the greatest players in the history of football : " Frank Morse . . . was one of those gridiron heroes who quickened the breath of those who were boys in the early nineties . And perhaps older men knew the spell of his personality and his achievements . "