Background
Albert Booth was born on February 1, 1908, in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, the son of Albert James Booth, a gunmaker with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and Mary Louise Frank.
Albert Booth was born on February 1, 1908, in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, the son of Albert James Booth, a gunmaker with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and Mary Louise Frank.
Albert Booth attended high school in New Haven and in 1928 entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he majored in applied economic science.
Described as one of Yale's greatest halfbacks and all-around athletes, Booth made national headlines with his exploits. He was captain of both the varsity football and baseball squads and won eight varsity letters in football, baseball, and basketball from 1929 to 1932. Booth first gained recognition as a sophomore halfback in the fall of 1929, when he scored twice in a 14-0 victory over Brown University. This performance was overshadowed later that year when Booth scored three dramatic touchdowns and dropkicked three extra points to beat a powerful Army team 21-13. In his senior year Booth completed his athletic heroics by scoring three touchdowns in a 33-33 tie with Dartmouth, and by defeating archrival Harvard 3-0 with a field goal. This was not the last time that Booth "singlehandedly" defeated Harvard. In the Commencement Day Baseball Game of 1932, in his last appearance in a Yale uniform he hit a grand-slam home run to win the game 4-3.
A real-life embodiment of Frank Merriwell, Booth caught the imagination of a nation suffering through the early years of the Great Depression. His small size and elusive open-field running inspired spectacular newspaper stories, and he became one of the most popular American collegiate football heroes. Yet he was never selected as an All-American, although coach John Heisman considered him one of the best backs of the era. During the Yale-Harvard game of 1931, Booth became ill and finished the game bundled up on the bench. The illness was first diagnosed as a cold or a mild attack of the grippe, and he was placed in the Yale infirmary. After an apparent case of pneumonia set in, Booth was transferred to New Haven Hospital. The final diagnosis was pleurisy with effusion. This serious illness ended his collegiate football career.
Following a period of rest, Booth returned to Yale and finished his studies, although he did not graduate with his class. After graduating, Booth coached at Yale and at New York University, and later became a football referee. In 1932 he began a successful business career with the Sealtest Corporation, ultimately becoming general manager for the ice cream division in the southern New England district. He died of a heart attack while returning by automobile from New York City, where he had attended a play with his wife.
Of small stature - five feet, six inches tall, and weighing only 147 pounds - he acquired such appropriate nicknames as "Little Boy Blue" and "the Mighty Atom. "
On July 4, 1932, Albert Booth married Marion Gertrude Noble. They had two daughters.
