American football player (1896–1918)
Thomas Louis Spence (April 17, 1896 – November 27, 1918) was an American college football player. Spence also played on the baseball , basketball , and track teams.[ 1]
Georgia Tech
Spence was a prominent fullback for John Heisman 's Georgia Tech Golden Tornado of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1914 to 1916 . He was posthumously elected to the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1976.[ 2]
1915
In 1915 , near the end of the LSU game, he returned an interception 85 yards.[ 3] He made a 40-yard drop kick field goal against North Carolina.[ 4]
1916
Spence was a starter for the 1916 team which, as one writer wrote, "seemed to personify Heisman."[ 5] In Georgia Tech's record-setting 222-0 win over Cumberland College in 1916, Spence scored the second-most behind Everett Strupper when he netted five touchdowns.[ 6] He was selected All-Southern that season.[ 7] Walter Camp gave him honorable mention.
World War I
Spence was a casualty of the World War I .[ 8] He is the namesake of Spence Air Base .[ 9]
References
^ "Thomas Spence Killed In Airplane Accident" . The Gazette Times . December 18, 1918.
^ "Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame" .
^ "Georgia Techs Walloped Tigers of Louisiana" . The Charlotte News . October 24, 1915. p. 10. Retrieved May 4, 2016 – via Newspapers.com .
^ "Possessing No Offense and a Weak Defense, Carolina Proved Easy For The Jackets" . Charlotte News . October 31, 1915. p. 12. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
^ Heisman, John M. (October 2, 2012). Heisman: The Man Behind the Trophy . Simon and Schuster. pp. 144 . ISBN 9781451682915 .
^ "A Monumental Victory" . October 6, 2006.
^ Intercollegiate Athletic Calendar . Vol. 1. 1917. p. 167.
^ Wiley Lee Umphlett (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football . Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 141 . ISBN 9780313284045 .
^ "Spence Air Base" . Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 27, 2014 .
External links
Backfield Line † = Unanimous selection