Lee McClung Thomas Lee " Bum " McClung ( March 26 , 1870 – December 19 , 1914 ) was an American football player who later served as the 22nd Treasurer of the United States . McClung was born in Knoxville , Tennessee . His father was Frank H . McClung , a merchant , and he was related to Albert Sidney Johnston and John Marshall . He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and went on to Yale University , where he was class leader , received the largest number of votes as its most popular member in his senior year , and was a member of Skull and Bones . He was chairman of his class ' s Junior Promenade Committee . McClung , who was always known as Lee from his college days onward , was perhaps the best - known football player in the country while at Yale . In his athletic prime he stood 5 ' 10 " , weighed between 165 and 180 lbs . , was on the varsity baseball team , and played in every football season from 1888 to 1891 on teams that compiled a 54 - 2 record and a 2269 - 49 point total . ( It was unusual to make the team as a freshman at the time , but McClung did , being the only freshman to play on the noted 1888 team . ) He himself was credited with scoring 176 points in 1889 and 494 in his career . He was captain of the unscored - upon Yale football team of 1891 ( 13 - 0 record , 488 - 0 point record ) , graduating the following year with a B . A . He never left a game during injury , despite football being considerably rougher at the time . On November 21 , 1891 , his famous team of eleven defeated Harvard 10 - 0 , avenging their hard - fought loss of the year before . He played his last college game against Princeton five days later , on Thanksgiving , with the very same eleven Yale players defeating the Tigers 19 - 0 . He is thought to have designed the cutback play . McClung returned to New Haven in the fall for many years to assist in coaching . His reputation was long - lasting on the gridiron , and in 1941 , even " Time " magazine was still referring to " a turtlenecked Yale man of the Bum McClung era . " He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963 . McClung spent the year after graduation traveling in Europe and California , where he became the first coach at the University of California . He then entered the service of the St . Paul & Duluth Railroad Company at St . Paul , Minnesota . In 1899 he joined the Southern Railway Company and remained with it until 1901 , when he became assistant to the second vice president of the company . McClung became assistant freight traffic manager of the company in 1902 , and retained this position until 1904 , when he was appointed Treasurer of Yale University , assuming that office on December 15 , 1904 . While in this position , he drew fire for writing satirically about the sale of the defunct Ingham University , having called it " a defunct college that we should be very pleased to sell on very low terms to any one making due application . . . If it may prove an incentive to the consummation of the deal I should be very much pleased to throw in a cemetery which is located on the grounds . " He also modernized treasury and accounting methods at the university . On September 23 , 1909 , President William Howard Taft appointed McClung , a Southern Republican , as Treasurer of the United States . He took office on November 1 of that year . He was paid $ 8 , 000 annually . On January 8 , 1910 , he handed his predecessor a cheque for $ 1 , 260 , 134 , 946 . 88 ⅔ , an acknowledgment of the money and securities in the department as of the day McClung took office ; it took a little over two months to count all the assets , as is customary when a Treasurer departs . This was said to have been the largest financial transaction from man to man in world history at the time . During his time in office , he urged that worn , dirty banknotes be withdrawn at a higher rate in order to establish a sanitary currency . McClung served until his resignation of November 14 , 1912 became effective a week later . He resigned his post because of a dispute in the Treasury Department , a so - called " mutiny " led by A . Piatt Andrew , then Assistant Secretary of the Treasury , who had troubles with Secretary Franklin MacVeagh which involved McClung . Andrew , who resigned on July 3 of that year , criticized MacVeagh ' s lax business methods and poor administrative skills , naming several Treasury officials as agreeing with him , including McClung . MacVeagh asked McClung to repudiate Andrew ' s statement concerning him , but he refused , and relations between them became strained . However , President Taft called a truce at the Treasury until after the election that year , with McClung announcing his resignation nine days after Taft ' s decisive defeat . After McClung left office , his successor , Carmi A . Thompson , gave him an even bigger cheque on December 4 , 1912 , amounting to $ 1 , 519 , 285 , 908 . 57 ⅔ . The day before , he had made a speech in Pittsburgh claiming that " It is physically possible to steal $ 100 , 000 , 000 from the Treasury of the United States . " McClung died in a private hospital in London after a three - months ' illness of typhoid fever contracted at Frankfurt . His brother C . M . was with him when he died . His body was returned to the United States on board the steamer " St . Paul " , which left Liverpool on December 26 , 1914 . His funeral service took place at St . Thomas Episcopal Church , New York on January 4 , 1915 ; he was buried in Knoxville ' s Old Gray Cemetery two days later following additional services at his sister ' s home . One of his obituaries reminisced : " Ah ! A remarkable athlete , a wonderful football player , a lovable classmate , a diligent student , a manly man – a type Yale men idealize for emulation . Such was Lee McClung . " McClung apparently never married . He had two brothers who went to Yale . McClung was a director of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford , Connecticut , a director of the Marion Institute of Alabama , a national councilman of the Boy Scouts of America , and treasurer of the American Association for Highway Improvement . He was a member of the Metropolitan , Riding , and Chevy Chase Clubs of Washington , the University Club of New York City , and the Graduates and New Haven Lawn Clubs of New Haven . He was also elected president of the Yale Alumni Association of Washington on December 22 , 1910 .