Crawford was born on November 11, 1864, in New Albany, Indiana. He was the son of Henry Crawford, a prominent lawyer in Chicago and an officer of the Wabash Railroad.[1][2] Crawford played football at Yale University as a quarterback and halfback, lettering on the 1885 Yale Bulldogs football team.[3] He was the lightest player in the history of the Yale Bulldogs football program.[2] On November 17, 1885, he was injured during a practice when he collided with a member of the freshman team named Bishop.[4] Crawford graduated from Yale in 1886 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[5]
Football in Chicago and coaching career
In 1890, Crawford played for the Chicago All-University team alongside Knowlton Ames, who had played at Princeton University, and Frank G. Peters, afellow Yale alumnus who was captain of the 1885 Yale team.[6] Crawford scored a touchdown in a 12–8 loss to Cornell on Thanksgiving Day.[7]
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Crawford moved to Kentland, Indiana, where he was a lawyer for a large railway. He then joined his father's law firm in Chicago. Several years later, he went to Seattle, where he practiced law and purchased the Seattle, Renton and Southern electric line, a railroad that ran from Seattle to Renton, Washington.[2]
In December 1896, Crawford was engaged to Katherine Louise Wardner.[14] The couple were married on February 23, 1897, in Milwaukee.[15]
Crawford spent the last two years of his life as a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. He died in Lexington, on September 6, 1933, in an ambulence headed to St. Joseph's Hospital after he had suffered a heart attack.[2][16]
