Cowan, Hector W.
Football
b. July 12, 1863, Hobart, NY
d. Oct. 19, 1941
Cowan played guard and tackle at Princeton in an era when linemen often carried the ball. The 5-foot-10, 189-pound Cowan carried it often enough to score 79 touchdowns during his five-year career.
He had never played football before November of 1884, when the captain of the Princeton team spotted him among students watching practice from the sidelines and had him put on a uniform. Cowan didn't play in a game that year, but he became a starting guard in 1885 and played every minute of every game for three seasons.
There was no limit on eligibility in those days. Cowan graduated in 1888, enrolled in the Princeton Theological Seminary, and kept playing football for the school. As team captain, he put himself at right tackle and installed a system of calling plays by number, the first time that was done at a major college.
In his last season, 1889, Cowan played right tackle and was named to the first All-America team. Princeton ended Yale's 49-game winning streak with a 10-0 victory in which Cowan ran 30 yards to set up one touchdown and recovered a fumble to set up the second. (Touchdowns were then worth only 4 points, with the conversion adding another point.)
Cowan went to the University of North Carolina campus in the spring of 1889 to organize that school's first football team. He became a Presbyterian minister and served as part-time athletic director and football coach at the University of Kansas from 1894 through 1896. His teams there won 15 games, lost 7, and tied 1.