Lee McClung

Who was Lee McClung?

Thomas Lee "Bum" McClung 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. 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, 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.