Walter Boal Walter Ayres Boal ( born c . 1879 ) was an All - American football player and hammer throw er in the late 19th Century . Boal played at the guard position for Harvard University from 1897 to 1899 and was selected as a first - team All - American in 1898 . Football player . Boal was 5 feet , 11 - 1 / 2 inches tall , and weighed 195 pounds . A native of Chicago , Boal attended that city ' s Harvard School . After graduating from preparatory school , Boal enrolled at Harvard where he played football for Harvard ' s varsity football team from 1897 to 1899 . Boal was unlike most of the Harvard football players of his era who were drawn from the ranks of the elite eastern preparatory schools . In fact , Boal was the only westerner on Harvard ' s varsity team in 1899 , leading one writer to note that his appearance Harvard ' s lineup violated " a rule as unvarying as the law of gravitation . " In 1896 , he played on the freshman team , and in 1897 he was a substitute on the varsity team and saw action in Harvard ' s 1897 rivalry game with Yale . At the start of the 1898 football season , sports writers credited Boal with being the only player on Harvard ' s line that the coaches could depend on . Though he played as a lineman , Boal was recognized for his ability as a " line plunger " ( a term used at that time for those who ran with the ball and plunged into the line ) . In Harvard ' s 1898 victory over Ivy League rival Penn , Boal blocked a kick and even scored a touchdown after recovering a fumble . In 1899 , the author of the syndicated newspaper column " Gossip of the Gridiron " wrote of Boal : " Boal is on the Harvard team and will appear in the great contest with Yale , because he is one of the best men in the country . He never criticises , his words never appear in print , yet when there is do - or - die work to be done in the line , this physical giant is never found wanting . There is every prospect that most of the impressionable builders of the ' All - America ' elevens will not hesitate to place Boal in the line of the theoretically strongest team . " Boal was noted for his unusual " erect manner of hitting the line " ; one writer observed that the unusual technique had " worked some , " but remained " a dangerous experiment . " As the result of a leg injury , Boal did not perform as well in 1899 as he had in 1898 and did not make the All - American team as a senior . One writer noted , " Last year , he was very effective running with the ball , but this season his leg kept him out of the game for so long that he has had to work hard to get back into his old form . " Hammer thrower . Boal also competed for Harvard ' s track and field team in the 16 - pound hammer throw , an event in which he set the Harvard record . In May 1901 , Boal placed second in the hammer throw at the national collegiate track and field championships . He had placed fourth in the event in May 1900 . In July 1899 , Boal traveled to England with a group of Harvard and Yale athletes for an international track meet against athletes from Oxford and Cambridge . Boal took first place in the hammer throw in England , leading one American paper to write that he " threw the hammer so well in England . " Another newspaper reported that , in a demonstration of his strength while on the ship traveling to England , " Boal , the big Harvard guard , astonished the passengers one afternoon by skipping rope around the deck with Spitzer of Yale on his back , and Spitzer is no small man . "