Henry Hobbs Henry Homer Hobbs ( May 10 , 1887June 28 , 1931 ) was an American football player and coach . He played college football at Yale University and was selected as a consensus All - American at the tackle position in 1909 . He also served as the head coach at Amherst College from 1910 to 1913 , compiling a 13 – 17 – 2 record with the Lord Jeffs . During World War I , Hobbs was active with the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the American Field Service . When the United States entered the war , he served in the United States Army and was put in charge of the procurement , storage , and distribution of lubricating oils for the American Expeditionary Forces . Early years . Hobbs was born in 1887 in Slatersville , Rhode Island . His father , Charles Henry Hobbs , owned a knitting mill in Palmer , Massachusetts . Hobbs attended preparatory school at Andover and was captain of the Andover football team in 1905 . College football player . Hobbs enrolled at Dartmouth College during the 1906 - 1907 academic year and played on the Dartmouth Big Green football team in 1906 . He subsequently transferred to Yale and joined Yale ' s football team in 1907 . He was selected as a consensus All - American at the tackle position in 1909 . Hobbs was also a " star hammer thrower " for Yale . He was also a member of The Colony and Berzelus while at Yale . Football coach at Amherst . Hobbs was hired as the head football coach at Amherst in January 1910 . He was the head coach at Amherst from 1910 to 1913 , compiling a 13 – 17 – 2 record . In January 1914 , Hobbs announced that he would not return as Amherst ' s football coach in the fall of 1914 . Hobss stated that he intended to focus on his business duties . Business career and military service . While coaching the Amherst football team , Hobbs was employed in a department store in Springfield , Massachusetts , from 1910 to 1911 and in the bond department of Hayden , Stone & Company in Boston from 1911 to 1913 . From 1913 to 1914 , he was employed with Logan & Bryan , commission merchants in Chicago . In 1915 , 15 months before the United States entered World War I , Hobbs sailed to France to serve with the French Ambulance Corps and later with the French Intelligence Corps . He was also a member of the organization department of the Commission for Relief in Belgium in 1915 . He also worked with the American Field Service where he was attached to the 1st French Army from 1915 to 1916 . In 1917 , when the United States entered the war , he served in the United States Army with the rank of captain . He was responsible for procurement , storage , and distribution of lubricating oils for the American Expeditionary Forces . After he was discharged from the military in January 1919 , he remained engaged in the oil business . He later became a stone engineer for the Fuller Construction Company of New York . Family and death . In January 1911 , Hobbs married Helen Whittier Andrus , the daughter of John Emory Andrus , a U . S . Congressman . The marriage was opposed by Congressman Andrus , reported to be a millionaire and the " richest man in Congress " . The wedding occurred in secret and resulted in extensive coverage in newspapers from Boston to Baltimore . Congressman Andrus was reported to be " disonsolate " over the decision of his " favorite daughter " to marry a man who was " at present ' aisle manager ' for a department store in Springfield , Mass . " Hobbs replied in the press that he had $ 100 , 000 of his own and that he intended to go into business for himself . Hobbs and his wife had a daughter , Eleanore Bourne Hobbs , born in August 1912 . The couple divorced in 1916 , and Hobbs was not permitted to see his daughter for 13 years . In 1929 , Hobbs won a habeas corpus action requiring his ex - wife to allow him to see his 17 - year - old daughter . Hobbs was married in 1928 to Edna Shirk . In June 1931 , he died from heart disease at his home in New York City . He was 44 years old at the time of his death . Hobbs was buried in Palmer , Massachusetts .