Forrest Craver

Forrest Eugene "Cap" Craver Sr. (September 24, 1875 – October 18, 1958) was an American college football player and coach and athletic director who helped to pioneer physical education programs at the collegiate level including the introduction of intramural sports.[1]

Forrest Craver
Biographical details
Born(1875-09-24)September 24, 1875
Wapwallopen, Pennsylvania
DiedOctober 18, 1958(1958-10-18) (aged 83)
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Playing career
1895–1898Dickinson
Position(s)End
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1904, 1918–1921Dickinson
Head coaching record
Overall21–18–6

Coaching career

Football

Craver served as the fifth and fourteenth head football coach at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.[2] He held that position for a total of five seasons, first coaching the team for the 1904 season and then returning to coach the team from 1918 until 1921.[3] His overall coaching record at Dickinson was 21 wins, 18 losses, and 6 ties.[4] This ranks him seventh at Dickinson in terms of total wins and tenth at Dickinson in terms of winning percentage. [5]

Craver was the first graduate of Dickinson to coach football at Dickinson.[6] His teams would often scrimmage against the cross-town rivals Carlisle Indians coached by Pop Warner.[7]

Craver was also a delegate to the 1909 Intercollegiate Athletic Association meeting. This meeting brought about serious reforms for safety and rules changes in the sport of American football.[8]

For the 1917 season, he worked as head coach and director of sports at the Tome School in Maryland.[9]

Track and field

Besides coaching football, Craver coached track as well. He led the Dickinson track team to ten undefeated seasons in 1912, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1934. Craver was the organizer and early president of the Old Middle Atlantic Collegiate Track and Field Association[10]

Athletic director

While serving as athletic director in 1904–05, Craver was sued by Ralph O. Hall, a Dickinson College junior, and varsity baseball pitcher, for breach of contact for offering Hall money to attend Dickinson and play baseball, rather than attending Cornell. The court awarded judgment of $217 to Hall. Craver resigned his position with the college, and left for several years, before returning for a long and successful coaching career.[11]

Academics

Craver was a long-standing faculty member at Dickinson[12] as instructor of mathematics, Latin, and physical education.[13] The school has honored his memory by annually awarding "The Forrest E. Craver Mathematics Prize" to selected graduates.[14] He was a long-standing member of the Phi Beta Kappa organization at Dickinson[15] and was the local chapter's treasurer from 1910 until 1939.[16]

References
  1. Dickinson Chronicles Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine "Forrest E. Craver 1875–1958" by Cynthia Mackey
  2. “The History of Football at Dickinson College, 1885-1969.” Gobrecht, Wilbur J., Chambersburg, PA: Kerr Printing Co., 1971.
  3. Centennial Conference Archived October 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine "2008 Centennial Conference Football Prospectus"
  4. Dickinson College: A History by Charles Coleman Sellers, Middletown, CT. Wesleyan University Press, 1973
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2007-12-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. Chronicles of Dickinson College Archived 2008-10-07 at the Wayback Machine Forrest Eugene Craver (1875–1958)
  7. New York Times "Dickinson Plays with Indians" October 2, 1913
  8. "West Point Leads in Football Reform" New York Times, December 28, 1909
  9. "Warner's Choice to Direct Sports at Tome School". The Pittsburgh Press. August 6, 1917. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  10. "Craver, Forrest E." DropFile, Dickinson College Special Collections, Dickinson College.
  11. The Washington Times "College Athlete Awarded Salary", June 8, 190, p. 7.
  12. The Newark Advocate Monday, October 20, 1958
  13. The Microcosm 1911 Dickinson College Yearbook
  14. Dickinson College Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Other Honors
  15. Phi Beta Kappa Handbook and General Address Catalogue of the United Chapters By Phi Beta Kappa, Eben Burt Parsons, Published by Walden & Crawley, 1900
  16. Dickinson College Chronicles Alpah of Pennsylvania Centennial History (1887–1986)
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