Vernon Prichard Vernon Edwin " Prich " Prichard ( January 25 , 1892 – July 10 , 1949 ) was an American football quarterback and military officer . He played college football with Army and was selected as a first - team All - American in 1914 . He became a career officer in the U . S . Army and rose to the rank of Major General . He was lifelong friends with West Point classmate Dwight Eisenhower and , during World War II , he commanded the 14th Armored Division from 1942 to 1944 and the 1st Armored Division from 1944 to 1945 during the Italian Campaign . Early years . A native of Onawa , Iowa , Prichard was the son of attorney J . A . Prichard . The younger Prichard began his education at Morningside College in Sioux City , Iowa , where he also played football and established a reputation as a passer . In November 1910 , while he was a student at Morningside , Prichard received word that he had been appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . He enrolled at West Point on June 11 , 1911 . U . S . Military Academy . While serving as a cadet at West Point , Prichard played for the Academy ' s football and baseball teams . He gained his greatest fame in football as the quarterback for the Army Black Knights football team from 1912 to 1914 . Prichard ' s teammates on the Army football teams included two of the leading generals of World War II , Omar Bradley , who played at the end position , and Dwight Eisenhower , who played halfback until a knee injury sidelined him . James Van Fleet , commander of U . S . forces in the Korean War , also played on the 1914 West Point football team with Prichard . Although he weighed only 158 pounds , Prichard played every minute of every major game during his three years of varsity football at West Point . Prichard first gained national attention after an October 1913 game against Colgate University . Colgate led 6 – 0 with ten seconds left to play , when Prichard sprinted 70 yards for a touchdown to lead Army to a 7 – 6 victory . Throughout his football career at West Point , Prichard ' s favorite receiver was Louis A . Merrilat from Chicago . The passing team of " Prichard to Merrilat " was one of the first great passing combinations in college football . The Prichard - Merrilat combination gained national fame after the 1913 Army – Navy Game , played in New York before a crowd of 40 , 000 at the Polo Grounds . Army had not defeated Navy since 1905 , and Navy was undefeated and favored to beat Army by odds of 6 – 1 . Although Navy had allowed only seven points in its other games in 1913 , Prichard and Merrilat teamed up to lead Army to a 22 – 9 win , with Prichard throwing two touchdown passes to Merrilat . The crowd reportedly left the Polo Grounds chanting , " Prichard - to - Merillat , Prichard - to - Merillat . . . " over and over again . On the train trip back to West Point after the 1913 Navy game , the football team elected Prichard as the captain of the 1914 football team . A newspaper report announcing his election noted : " The football squad elected its next year ' s captain on the train trip home . They chose Cadet Vernon E . Prichard of the second class as their leader . Cadet Prichard has played quarterback on the team for two seasons and got in every game except one on the army ' s schedule this season . His brilliant forward passing , spectacular open field running and excellent generalship have made him one of the season ' s leading quarterbacks . . . . His election was unanimous . He is a color sergeant in the cadet battalion and popular with his teammates and fellow cadets . " In 1914 , Prichard led Army to an undefeated 9 – 0 season . In the final game of the season , Army defeated Navy , 20 – 0 , as Prichard finished his college football career by throwing passes to Merrilat and Bob Neyland , who later became the football coach at the University of Tennessee . At the end of the season , Prichard was selected as a first - team All - American quarterback . At West Point , Prichard was known to his fellow cadets by the nicknames " Prich " and " Nigger " . A profile of Prichard in a West Point yearbook noted : " It ' s hard to tell the truth about Prich for no one knows just what it is . Some move him right up beside St . Peter and hand him a ' New Model Harp ' with printed directions for playing , while others give him a dog ' s name and call him Nigger . But wherever you rank him , it ' s a safe bet that he ' ll feel right at home . He ' ll borrow his Satanic Majesty ' s opera cloak for the first night or slap the old Saint on the back and ask him for Bull and papers . " Military career . Early years . Upon graduating from the Academy in June 1915 , Prichard received the rank of second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st Infantry . He served at Eagle Pass , Texas , from September 1915 to April 1916 and participated in the Pancho Villa Expedition into Mexico from April to August 1916 . While serving in Mexico , Prichard was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant . Prichard returned to West Point for temporary duty during the fall of 1916 but returned to Mexico from December through February 1917 . World War I . In May 1917 , following the United States entry into World War I , Prichard was promoted to the rank of captain of the infantry . He sailed for France via England on January 8 , 1918 . He entered Germany with the Army of Occupation via Belgium and Luxembourg and served in Germany and France through June 1919 . World War II . Prichard remained lifelong friends with his backfield partner , Dwight Eisenhower . Eisenhower later recalled that he looked for " natural leaders " from the ranks of football . Eisenhower believed that football , more than any other sport , instilled the belief that victory comes from teamwork and dedication . He identified Prichard as one of the officers with football background who had " measured up " during the war . Prichard served as the Commanding Officer of the 27th Field Artillery Regiment from 1940 to 1941 . He served as Chief of Staff 4th Armored Division from 1941 – 1942 and Commanding General 14th Armored Division from November 1942 to July 1944 . From July 1944 through September 1945 , he was the Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division ( nicknamed " Old Ironsides " ) during the Italian Campaign , including the Battle of Po Valley and the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy . Prichard and Eisenhower exchanged correspondence during the war . Shortly after the United States entered the war , Eisenhower wrote a letter to Prichard in which he confided " this is a long tough road we have to travel . " In an oft - quoted passage , Eisenhower continued his comments to Prichard , noting that " men that can do things are going to be sought out just as surely as the sun rises in the morning , " and " fake reputations , habits of glib and clever speech , and glittering surface performances are going to be discovered . " During the Battle of the Bulge , Prichard wrote to Eisenhower , reminding him of what their football coach had taught them : " If things break badly or go against you - - stay with it all the harder . " Eisenhower biographer Matthew Holland later wrote that Eisenhower had learned important lessons on the football playing field at West Point , and concluded : " World War II was won on the playing fields of West Point , and Ike would prove to be the quarterback of the winning team . " After World War II , Prichard became the Chief of the Army Public Information Division . In February 1949 , President Harry Truman promoted Prichard from the rank of brigadier general to major general . Death and funeral . Prichard was killed in a yacht explosion in July 1949 . He was part of a group that had boarded the yacht " Halcyon " for a picnic cruise on the Potomac River in Washington , D . C . The craft was within yards of the dock at the Corinthian Yacht Club when an explosion destroyed the vessel . Prichard was thrown into the Potomac and killed instantly . Navy Commodore Wilfred Painter was also killed in the blast . Philadelphia soldier , diplomat and socialite Col . Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle , Jr . dove into the Potomac in an effort to save Prichard and recovered his body . Prichard ' s funeral was held at the chapel of Fort Myer , adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery . The Army ' s chief of chaplains officiated at the funeral , and the honorary pallbearers included Secretary of the Army , Gordon Gray , and classmates from the West Point Class of 1915 , including Dwight Eisenhower . Decorations . Here is the ribbon bar of Major General Prichard :