Johnny Poe John P . " Johnny " Poe , Jr . ( 26 February 1874 – 25 September 1915 ) was an American college football player and coach , soldier , Marine , and soldier of fortune , whose exploits on the gridiron and the battlefield contributed to the lore and traditions of the Princeton Tigers football program . Biography . Family . John Prentiss Poe , Jr . , known as " Johnny " , was born 26 February 1874 in Baltimore , Maryland , to John P . Poe , Sr . , and Anne Johnson Hough . He was the third of six sons in a family that also included three daughters . John Sr . was a prominent attorney , and relative of the American writer and poet , Edgar Allan Poe . John Sr . was an 1856 graduate of Princeton University and would later serve as Attorney General of Maryland . Anne Hough was from a Maryland family who supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War . Her nephew , Bradley T . Johnson served as a Confederate general , and her brother , Gresham Hough , fought with Mosby ' s raiders . All six Poe brothers wound up playing football for Princeton . The oldest , S . Johnson Poe , played halfback and also played on Princeton ' s national champion lacrosse team . The second son , Edgar A . Poe , was captain of the football team , and later served as Attorney General of Maryland , like his father . The fourth son , Neilson Poe , also played halfback . Fifth son , Arthur Poe , was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969 . Finally , the sixth son , Gresham Poe , played quarterback , and followed Johnny as head coach at Virginia . College football career . Poe enrolled at Princeton University in the fall of 1891 , and was elected president of the freshman class . In spite of his small size , he made the varsity football team at halfback , and finished the season tied for third in touchdown s scored for the team . However , he struggled academically , and was asked to leave in the Spring . When he left for home , the entire freshman class escorted him to the train station . He re - enrolled the following Fall , and started at quarterback , moving to halfback mid - way through the season . Poe played even better than in his freshman year , finishing second on the team for touchdowns scored . However , he was once again forced to leave the university for scholastic reasons . After leaving Princeton , Poe bounced around , coaching two seasons at Virginia , working for a steamboat operator , selling real estate , coaching the Navy football team , and serving as an assistant coach at Princeton . Poe would often return to Princeton as an assistant coach , including the National Championship season of 1903 . It was while serving as an assistant coach that Poe is credited with saying " If you won ' t be beat , you can ' t be beat , " which became the team motto for many seasons . Soldier , adventurer . Poe enlisted in the Fifth Maryland Infantry Regiment , and after over three years had risen to the rank of corporal , when the United States declared war on Spain on 25 April 1898 . His regiment was mustered into Federal service on 14 May , and sent to Tampa , Florida on 3 June , in preparation for an invasion of Cuba . However , the regiment was unable to obtain transport to Cuba , and spent the war in Tampa , and later in Huntsville , Alabama , before being mustered out of service on 22 October . Poe worked as a cowpuncher in New Mexico , but longed for action and enlisted in the Regular Army ' s 23rd Infantry . He was sent to the island of Sulu in the Philippines , where he served in Company F and as an orderly on General Bates ' staff , seeing none of the action he had been hoping for . Declining to apply for a commission , Poe instead asked his father to buy out his enlistment , and worked as a surveyor in Baltimore for a few months before returning to New Mexico . In 1903 , Poe joined the Kentucky National Guard , his detachment of which was sent to Princeton , Kentucky to suppress uprisings which led to the " Black Patch Wars " . Later that year , he wrote to the Commandant of the Marine Corps , volunteering his services in the looming Panamanian revolution . He was enlisted and sailed for Panama aboard the USS Dixie , but saw no action , and he returned to the United States . There , he engaged briefly in the coal - mining business in Charleston , West Virginia before moving to Tonopah , Nevada to engage in silver mining there . Hearing that war was breaking out between Honduras and Nicaragua , Poe left Nevada in 1907 , intending to join the Nicaraguan army . However , when his ship reached Honduras , anxious that the war was ending , he joined the army of Honduras . He was made a captain and put in charge of a gun in the siege of Amapala . The war ended with the defeat of Honduran forces , and Poe returned to Nevada and mining . The following year found him with General Rafael de Nogales Méndez on a filibuster ing expedition in Venezuela against the dictator , Cipriano Castro . Méndez eventually ran afoul of the new president , Juan Vicente Gómez , and went into exile . Poe returned once again to his mining interest , taking a two year break , however , to join an expedition to survey the boundary between Alaska and Canada . Death . Within days of Britain ' s entry into World War I , Poe volunteered for the British Army and was assigned to the Royal Garrison Artillery , where he served in France for the remainder of 1914 and the first part of 1915 . By then he had decided that artillery was too far behind the lines , and had himself transferred to the Black Watch , a famous Scottish infantry regiment , known to the Germans as the " Ladies from Hell " for the kilt s they wore and their ferocity . In the opening hours of the Battle of Loos , on the morning of 25 September 1915 , Poe was with a detachment carrying bombs to another regiment and was part way across an open field , when he was struck in the stomach by a bullet and killed . He was later buried there , between the German and British lines . However , his friends and relatives were never able to locate his grave . Legacy . Poe ' s name was entered into the Black Watch roll of honor at Edinburgh Castle . At Princeton , Poe field was named in his honor . Given annually and established by Poe ' s mother , the " John Prentiss Poe , Jr . Memorial Football Cup " ( presently known as the Poe - Kazmaier Trophy ) is the highest award given to a Princeton football player . References .