Today, we delve into the remarkable narrative of Paul Withington, an individual whose life intertwines with significant historical events, much akin to the character Forrest Gump from the iconic film of the 1990s. Withington, a distinguished football player at Harvard during the early 1900s, exemplified not only athletic prowess but also intellectual acumen as he pursued a medical degree while coaching football. His story is further distinguished by his service during World War I, where he demonstrated extraordinary bravery on the battlefield, ultimately earning a Silver Star for his courageous actions. As we explore his multifaceted life, we illuminate his impact on sports and medicine, revealing a figure whose contributions have remained mainly obscured by time. Join us as we uncover the legacy of this extraordinary man and his indelible mark on history, narrated by Timothy P. Brown of FootballArchaeology.com.

This information comes from his original post titled: The Paul Withington Story .

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And we have an individual in football that has a similar story, seems to be involved with everything that was happening on.

Timothy p.

Brown of FootballArchaeology.com joins us to tell us about this special individual from football's past.

And it's all coming up in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the pig Pen, your portal deposit of football history.

And it is Tuesday.

And like we do traditionally, every Tuesday, we talk to Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com.

tim, welcome back to the Pig pen.

Hey, Darren.

I guess I should say aloha in this instance.

Aloha indeed.

Yeah.

Very, very nice segue.

Very friendly.

This is one, one of your more friendly greetings of coming on episode.

I must say.

I think I've been to Hawaii four or five times.

I love that place.

It is.

It is so cool.

That's a bucket list for me.

I've not, not even gotten close to it yet.

It is.

There's.

You just walk into that place or places and just like every care in the world just disappears.

Well, we appreciate that you're still sitting down.

I was expecting maybe you're going to stand up and you had a hula skirt on or something.

So we appreciate that you didn't go.

Maybe next week.

Of course.

Tim, you are segwaying us into one of your recent tidbits.

Maybe this isn't a recent one.

I, I lose track.

You have so many good ones out there.

It was actually December 7th.

Oh, okay.

So this was fairly recent just a few months ago and you titled it the Paul Withington Story.

What can you tell us about this story and Mr.

Withington?

Yeah, so I think, you know, he.

This is one of these guys that no one's ever heard of, right?

Yeah.

But a really interesting life that this man, you know, led.

So, you know, that kind of Places him historically.

So, you know, very, very solid football player.

And he was one of the first, what they called roving centers.

So he played center, but, you know, back then you played center on offense and on defense.

And so, you know, teams traditionally with all seven linemen or forwards would, you know, just, they stayed in the same position on defense and just lined up against the guy that they had opposed when they were on offense.

So all seven men would be on the line of scrimmage.

And then you'd have, you know, your quarterback or fullback would be, you know, 30 yards back.

And then the other, the other three backs were in some kind of either a diamond formation or something.

And but as teams started throwing the ball and, you know, just opening up a bit more, they, you know, defenses had a need to, to be able to get to where the ball went as opposed to assuming it was being run right up the gut every time.

And so they started, the center started backing up off the line, which initially they called a roving center.

And then later on people who did that, they started calling them backers up and then that name became linebacker.

Right.

So, you know, that was kind of the evolution of that kind of position, you know, as you took men off the line of scrimmage and made them more movable and, you know, pursuit oriented.

So, so he was one of the first guys who did, who did that.

He was also just as generally just a great athlete.

You know, he, he used to, he was Harvard's top middle distance runner.

So here he's playing center in football and he's a middle distance runner.

He captained the crew team.

He, he played baseball for them.

You know, he just, he did a bunch of stuff and he was a great sailor, which he had really picked up in Hawaii.

And then, you know, you know, actively did that later in life.

So obviously he's a smart fellow as well.

And while he's going to med school, he is an assistant coach under Percy Haughton, who was Harvard's professional coach by then and, you know, one of the, you know, great coaches of the, you know, first two decades of the century.

So then he's, you know, he enlists as a physician, and he's stationed with the 89th infantry at Camp Funston in Kansas.

And so if you're familiar with Camp Funston, that was the place where the Spanish flu first appeared, or at least was first diagnosed.

So, you know, you've got all these soldiers living.

It sounds like a place where disease would incubate, you know, function just kind of.

Yeah, and soldiers going every which way, getting transferred here and there, jumping on trains and, you know, even if just on leave.

And so, you know, that contributed to the spread.

So anyways, he's at, you know, he's at the center of history, even though they didn't really recognize it at the time.

So he's at the center of history there.

They're involved in, you know, probably the Musar gone.

But he ends up earning a silver Star because he's treating soldiers under fire.

Under direct fire.

Yeah.

So this, you know, I mean, he's just.

He's a stud football player.

He's a physician.

He's demonstrated his bravery.

So I mean, he's just like, you know, is there another all American person you can think of like this?

You know, I mean, just sounds like.

The Forrest Gumpo football is what he sounds like.

So then, you know, they leave all these.

You know, they couldn't just send everybody back right away.

So all these troops are go.

Are still sitting in France.

So they have this big American Expeditionary Force football tournament.

He ends up captaining the 89th Infantry Team, and they win the championship.

So, I mean, and there were some really tremendous football players.

You know, a lot of guys, early NFL players, you know, played in that tournament.

Um, and, you know, so he does that.

Then he goes.

He returns.

He goes to New York to practice medicine.

And while he's there, he's.

Percy Haughton, by then, was the coach at Columbia.

So he assists Percy Hutton while he's practicing medicine.

And then Percy Hunton dies partway through a season.

So he takes over as interim coach and eventually ends up he returns to Hawaii to practice, sets up a, you know, successful practice.

He's out sailing the salt seas and you doing things like that.

But he also Got called up.

You know, he stayed probably in the reserves.

I would assume army reserves throughout the, you know, throughout the time.

So, you know, this guy, you know, he just then, you know, he served in, you know, throughout the war.

I, I think he stayed primarily in, in Hawaii, but I could be wrong on that.

He's like an event magnet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, if there's something that's going to happen, he's going to be there.

Right.

So, you know, just crazy, the things that this guy saw and did and just, you know, just like he's in med school and he goes and, you know, sails across the sea to go, you know, treat British soldiers.

I mean, just the, you know, he could have done anything, but that's what he did.

So just really an admirable guy, as far as I can tell.

You know, really, really somebody special.

Yeah.

Pretty remarkable story and especially somebody that, you know, few of us have heard about before and, you know, just great that you bring it, bring to light him and preserve his history and his role in world history and a football history.

And you do some amazing things with some, some very much unknown items and people like this, Tim, and your tidbits and maybe you could share with the audience so what, where they can find your tidbits and read more readily.

Yeah.

So, I mean, just to, you know, set the stage a little bit, you know, I'm sitting here reading through articles of.

On one thing or another that I'm trying to research and I just come across other articles, articles that it's like, oh, hey, I didn't know about this.

So that's how I uncover some of the stuff.

But anyways, so, you know, my site is footballarchaeology.com it's on substack.

So, you know, you can subs, you know, go on there, check it out and if you like it, subscribe.

If you subscribe, you'll get an email every time I send out a.

A story.

And that email, you know, will contain the full story and images.

You can also just get it on the, on the, the Substack app if you prefer not to clog up your, your inbox.

Yeah.

And that's about it.

Other.

Other than that, you can, you can subscribe for free for, you know, partial access rights and then paid subscriptions give you access to everything.

And you can also follow me on.

On Blue sky under Football Archaeology, if that's, if that's your preference for getting notified about, you know, new stories.

Tim, that's some great gridiron information and history and we really appreciate you coming on and sharing that with you and we can't wait to see what you have for us next week.

Very good.

Look forward to it.

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