Barry Wood (football)
Encyclopedia
William Barry Wood, Jr. (May 4, 1910 - March 9, 1971), was an American football
player and medical educator. Wood played quarterback
for Harvard
during the 1929-1931 seasons and was one of the most prominent football players of his time. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1980.
An accomplished student as well as a gifted athlete, Wood went on to a highly successful academic career in medicine
and microbiology
at Washington University in St. Louis
and Johns Hopkins University
.
. His father was a Harvard graduate and trustee. He attended Milton Academy
. After graduating, he spent a year at The Thacher School
in California, then entered Harvard in 1928.
, and baseball
, plus one in tennis
.
Wood first made his national reputation as a sophomore in 1929, when he led Harvard to a comeback 20-20 tie with Army
: Wood threw a 40-yard touchdown pass and drop-kicked two extra points, including the kick to tie the game at the end. Michigan
's Fielding H. Yost called Wood in 1929 the greatest passer he had ever seen.
In Wood's senior year, 1931, he was team captain. In one noted game, Harvard came back from a 13-0 deficit to beat Army
14-13 as Wood led two touchdown drives, and made two crucial defensive plays (a touchdown-saving tackle and an interception) to save the win. He appeared on the cover of the November 23, 1931 issue of Time magazine. He was the consensus first-team quarterback as selected by most of the 1931 College Football All-America Team
s.
Wood was at the center of a controversy involving the famous sportscaster Ted Husing
. Commenting on Wood's poor play in the 1931 Harvard-Dartmouth game, Husing opined, "Wood is certainly playing a putrid game today." Two plays later, Wood threw the winning touchdown pass in Harvard's 7-6 win. Harvard fans protested Husing's use of the word "putrid", and the Harvard athletic director notified Husing's boss, William Paley
at CBS
, that Husing would be banned from broadcasting Harvard home games.
Wood was well-known for his role in Harvard's rivalry with Yale, which was led by its own three-sport star, Albie Booth
. In the words of the 1931 Time article, "the essence of Harvard football this year, as Booth has been the essence of Yale football since his sophomore year, is William Barry Wood Jr., called "Barry" by sportswriters and "Bill" by friends." When the two met for the first time as freshmen, Yale's freshman team beat Harvard's 7-6. Harvard beat Yale in Wood's sophomore and junior years. The Crimson won the 1929 game 10-6 as Wood drop-kicked a field goal and an extra point. Booth, suffering from a leg injury, did not start and had a second-quarter field goal attempt blocked, although he did later throw a touchdown pass for Yale's only points; Booth also nearly took a second-half kickoff return 96 yards for the potential winning score, before Harvard's Hall of Fame center Ben Ticknor
managed to tackle him from behind by grabbing his sweater. In 1930, the Harvard defense stymied Booth while Wood threw two touchdown passes, leading Harvard to a 13-0 win. In 1931, both Harvard and Yale entered "The Game" undefeated for the first time since 1913. Neither team scored until Booth kicked a late-game drop kick
field goal
to win 3-0, for Wood's only varsity football loss to Yale in three games. Wood and Booth picked up their rivalry in the spring, and Booth had the last word, hitting a two-out grand slam home run to beat Wood and the Harvard baseball team 4-3. Wood was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1980.
and Damon Runyon
. He was class president as a freshman and student council president as a senior, and he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1932. After college, he went on to study medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1932, he married Mary Lee Hutchins; to earn money for medical school, he wrote a book entitled What Price Football - A Player’s Defense of the Game.
Wood earned his medical degree in 1936. He was a National Research Council
Fellow in bacteriology
at Harvard, then returned to Hopkins in 1940 as a faculty member. In 1942, at the age of 32, he became head of the Department of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis
and physician-in-charge at Barnes Hospital
. He remained in St. Louis
for 13 years, then returned to Hopkins in 1955 as vice president of the university and hospital, and as a professor of microbiology. In 1959 he became director of the department of microbiology, and remained in that post until his death in 1971.
Beginning in his undergraduate days, Wood had developed an interest in the role of leukocytes that continued through his career. Wood was an early participant in the Army Epidemiological Board. He was part of a group that published an early paper on penicillin
in 1943. He worked on the mechanism of recovery from pneumonia
and was noted for early work on surface phagocytosis, research into the pathogenesis
of fever
, and endogenous pyrogen (now known as interleukin-1).
Wood wrote more than 125 papers and several books, including co-authorship of a microbiology textbook. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
in 1959. He served as president or a board member of numerous professional organizations, including the Central Society for Clinical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation
, and the Association of American Physicians
. He was a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers
, the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation
, and the President's Science Advisory Committee
. He received a Distinguished Achievement Award from Modern Medicine and a posthumous Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians
.
Wood died in 1971. Shortly before his death, an interview with Wood was videotaped for a documentary motion picture in the Leaders in American Medicine series produced by the medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha
. The Wood Basic Science Building at Hopkins is named in his honor.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and medical educator. Wood played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
during the 1929-1931 seasons and was one of the most prominent football players of his time. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1980.
An accomplished student as well as a gifted athlete, Wood went on to a highly successful academic career in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
and Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
.
Early life
Wood was born in Milton, MassachusettsMilton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 27,003 at the 2010 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
. His father was a Harvard graduate and trustee. He attended Milton Academy
Milton Academy
Milton Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered starting in 9th grade...
. After graduating, he spent a year at The Thacher School
The Thacher School
The Thacher School is a co-educational independent boarding school located on 425 acres of hillside overlooking the Ojai Valley in Ojai, California, United States. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-ed boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The...
in California, then entered Harvard in 1928.
Athletic career
A multitalented athlete, Wood earned a total of ten varsity letters at Harvard: three each in football, hockeyIce hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, plus one in tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
.
Wood first made his national reputation as a sophomore in 1929, when he led Harvard to a comeback 20-20 tie with Army
Army Black Knights football
The Army Black Knights football program represents the United States Military Academy. Army was recognized as the national champions in 1944, 1945 and 1946....
: Wood threw a 40-yard touchdown pass and drop-kicked two extra points, including the kick to tie the game at the end. Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
's Fielding H. Yost called Wood in 1929 the greatest passer he had ever seen.
In Wood's senior year, 1931, he was team captain. In one noted game, Harvard came back from a 13-0 deficit to beat Army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
14-13 as Wood led two touchdown drives, and made two crucial defensive plays (a touchdown-saving tackle and an interception) to save the win. He appeared on the cover of the November 23, 1931 issue of Time magazine. He was the consensus first-team quarterback as selected by most of the 1931 College Football All-America Team
1931 College Football All-America Team
The 1931 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1931...
s.
Wood was at the center of a controversy involving the famous sportscaster Ted Husing
Ted Husing
Edward Britt Husing was an American sportscaster and was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on television and radio.-Early life and career:...
. Commenting on Wood's poor play in the 1931 Harvard-Dartmouth game, Husing opined, "Wood is certainly playing a putrid game today." Two plays later, Wood threw the winning touchdown pass in Harvard's 7-6 win. Harvard fans protested Husing's use of the word "putrid", and the Harvard athletic director notified Husing's boss, William Paley
William Paley
William Paley was a British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology, which made use of the watchmaker analogy .-Life:Paley was Born in Peterborough, England, and was...
at CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, that Husing would be banned from broadcasting Harvard home games.
Wood was well-known for his role in Harvard's rivalry with Yale, which was led by its own three-sport star, Albie Booth
Albie Booth
Albie Booth was an American football player. He was a star at Yale University from 1929 to 1931, and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966....
. In the words of the 1931 Time article, "the essence of Harvard football this year, as Booth has been the essence of Yale football since his sophomore year, is William Barry Wood Jr., called "Barry" by sportswriters and "Bill" by friends." When the two met for the first time as freshmen, Yale's freshman team beat Harvard's 7-6. Harvard beat Yale in Wood's sophomore and junior years. The Crimson won the 1929 game 10-6 as Wood drop-kicked a field goal and an extra point. Booth, suffering from a leg injury, did not start and had a second-quarter field goal attempt blocked, although he did later throw a touchdown pass for Yale's only points; Booth also nearly took a second-half kickoff return 96 yards for the potential winning score, before Harvard's Hall of Fame center Ben Ticknor
Ben Ticknor
Ben Ticknor was an American football player. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954....
managed to tackle him from behind by grabbing his sweater. In 1930, the Harvard defense stymied Booth while Wood threw two touchdown passes, leading Harvard to a 13-0 win. In 1931, both Harvard and Yale entered "The Game" undefeated for the first time since 1913. Neither team scored until Booth kicked a late-game drop kick
Drop kick
A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player dropping the ball and then kicking it when it bounces off the ground. It contrasts to a punt, wherein the player kicks the ball without letting it hit the ground first....
field goal
Field goal (football)
A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...
to win 3-0, for Wood's only varsity football loss to Yale in three games. Wood and Booth picked up their rivalry in the spring, and Booth had the last word, hitting a two-out grand slam home run to beat Wood and the Harvard baseball team 4-3. Wood was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1980.
Medical career
Wood was also a leader off the field, praised as a model student-athlete by celebrated writers of the day such as Westbrook PeglerWestbrook Pegler
Francis James Westbrook Pegler was an American journalist and writer. He was a popular columnist in the 1930s and 1940s famed for his opposition to the New Deal and labor unions. Pegler criticized every president from Herbert Hoover to FDR to Harry Truman to John F. Kennedy...
and Damon Runyon
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and writer.He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the...
. He was class president as a freshman and student council president as a senior, and he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1932. After college, he went on to study medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1932, he married Mary Lee Hutchins; to earn money for medical school, he wrote a book entitled What Price Football - A Player’s Defense of the Game.
Wood earned his medical degree in 1936. He was a National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...
Fellow in bacteriology
Bacteriology
Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...
at Harvard, then returned to Hopkins in 1940 as a faculty member. In 1942, at the age of 32, he became head of the Department of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
and physician-in-charge at Barnes Hospital
Barnes Hospital
Barnes Hospital, also known as Barnes Convalescent Home, in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England, is a former hospital. It is located near to the A34 road and is in the middle of the complex interchange between the A34, M60 motorway and M56 motorway. Whilst the hospital was constructed in a rural...
. He remained in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
for 13 years, then returned to Hopkins in 1955 as vice president of the university and hospital, and as a professor of microbiology. In 1959 he became director of the department of microbiology, and remained in that post until his death in 1971.
Beginning in his undergraduate days, Wood had developed an interest in the role of leukocytes that continued through his career. Wood was an early participant in the Army Epidemiological Board. He was part of a group that published an early paper on penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
in 1943. He worked on the mechanism of recovery from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and was noted for early work on surface phagocytosis, research into the pathogenesis
Pathogenesis
The pathogenesis of a disease is the mechanism by which the disease is caused. The term can also be used to describe the origin and development of the disease and whether it is acute, chronic or recurrent...
of fever
Fever
Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...
, and endogenous pyrogen (now known as interleukin-1).
Wood wrote more than 125 papers and several books, including co-authorship of a microbiology textbook. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 1959. He served as president or a board member of numerous professional organizations, including the Central Society for Clinical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation
American Society for Clinical Investigation
The American Society for Clinical Investigation, or ASCI, established in 1908, is one of the nation's oldest and most respected medical honor societies.-Organization and Purpose:...
, and the Association of American Physicians
Association of American Physicians
The Association of American Physicians is a medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era, for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine." Election to the AAP is an honor extended to individuals with...
. He was a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers
Harvard Board of Overseers
The Harvard Board of Overseers is one of Harvard University's two governing boards...
, the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, and the President's Science Advisory Committee
President's Science Advisory Committee
In 1951 President of the United States Harry S. Truman established the Science Advisory Committee as part of the Office of Defense Mobilization . As a direct response to the launches of the Soviet artificial satellites, Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2, on October 4 and November 3, 1957, the Science...
. He received a Distinguished Achievement Award from Modern Medicine and a posthumous Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians
Association of American Physicians
The Association of American Physicians is a medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era, for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine." Election to the AAP is an honor extended to individuals with...
.
Wood died in 1971. Shortly before his death, an interview with Wood was videotaped for a documentary motion picture in the Leaders in American Medicine series produced by the medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha
Alpha Omega Alpha
The Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, commonly called Alpha Omega Alpha and abbreviated ΑΩΑ or AOA, is a national honor society for medical students, residents, scientists and physicians in the United States and Canada.-History:...
. The Wood Basic Science Building at Hopkins is named in his honor.