Archibald Hugh "Toots" "Tootsie" Douglas (February 8,
1885 – December 12, 1972) was a college football and baseball player and
distinguished veteran of World War II.
Douglas was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, but grew up in
Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Archibald J. Douglas and Nan Harlan.
Douglas was once a prominent running back for the Tennessee Volunteers
football teams of the University of Tennessee.
The 1902 Volunteers won a school record six games and beat rivals
Sewanee and Georgia Tech. 1902 was also the first time that Tennessee
scored on Vanderbilt in their Rivalry game. The team closed the season
with an 11 to 0 loss to John Heisman's Clemson Tigers. Douglas holds the
record for the longest punt in school history when he punted a ball 109
yards (the field length was 110 yards in those days) during the Clemson
game.
Heisman described the kick:
The day was bitterly cold and a veritable typhoon was blowing straight
down the field from one end to the other. We rushed the ball with more
consistency than Tennessee, but throughout the entire first half they
held us because of the superb punting of "Toots" Douglas, especially
because, in that period he had the gale squarely with him. Going against
that blizzard our labors were like unto those of Tantalus. Slowly, with
infinite pains and a maximum of exertion, we pushed the ball from our
territory to their 10-yard line. We figured we had another down to draw
on, but the referee begged to differ. He handed the ball to Tennessee
and the "tornado." Their general cheerfully chirped a signal – Saxe
Crawford, it must have been –; and "Toots" with sprightly step, dropped
back for another of his Milky Way punts. I visualize him still, standing
on his own goal line and squarely between his uprights. One quick glance
he cast overhead– no doubt to make sure that howling was still the same
old hurricane.
I knew at once what he proposed to do. The snap was perfect. "Toots"
caught the ball, took two smart steps and – BLAM!–away shot the ball as
though from the throat of Big Bertha. And, say, in his palmiest
mathematical mood, I don't believe Sir Isaac Newton himself could have
figured a more perfect trajectory to fit with that cyclone. Onward and
upward, upward and onward, the crazy thing flew like a brainchild of
Jules Verne. I thought it would clear the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our
safety man, the great Johnny Maxwell, was positioned 50 yards behind our
rush line, yet the punt sailed over his head like a phantom aeroplane.
Finally, it came down, but still uncured of its wanderlust it started in
to roll–toward our goal, of course, with Maxwell chasing and damning it
with every step and breath. Finally it curled up and died on our one-footline,
after a bowstring journey of just 109 yards.
In the loss to Vanderbilt, Tennessee's only score was provided by an A.
H. Douglas run around right end, breaking two tackles and getting the
touchdown. Douglas was selected All-Southern.[8] Nash Buckingham and Sax
Crawford were teammates.
Douglas then played for the Navy Midshipmen from 1904 to 1907, a
teammate of Bill Dague. Douglas made the tying score in the Army–Navy
Game of 1905.
He was captain of the team in 1907. He was selected a third-team
All-American by Walter Camp and a first-team All-American by the New
York Tribune. Captain Douglas called the tie to Vanderbilt "the
bitterest pill I have ever had to swallow."
On the baseball team, he was a pitcher.
|
