Henry Schoellkopf was an American football player and coach.
Background
Henry Schoellkopf was born December 14, 1879 in Buffalo, New York to Henry Schoellkopf Senior and Emily Vogel. Henry Senior was the oldest son of Buffalo, New York businessman Jacob F. Schoellkopf and his wife, Christiana T. (Duerr) Schoellkopf. Prior to his father"s early death in 1880, he partnered with Vogel and Pfister and opened a tannery in northeast Wisconsin that eventually “became the largest in the world prior to World War I.”.
Career
He was selected as an All-American fullback while attending Harvard Law School in 1903. He was the head coach of the Cornell Big Red football team from 1907 to 1908, compiling a record of 15 wins, three losses and one tie. Henry Senior married Vogel"s daughter, Emily Vogel (Henry"s mother) in 1875.
Henry would grow up to become the first of many Schoellkopfs to attend Cornell University when he enrolled in 1898.
Upon graduating from Cornell with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1902, Henry received a law degree from Harvard, where he continued to play football. Returning to Cornell, he served as a graduate coach before leaving to enter a law firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Schoellkopf began his career as a football player at the Cascadilla School, where he played fullback.
He then enrolled at Cornell University and played college football for the Cornell Big Red football team from 1900 to 1901. While at Cornell, he also was president of both the Quill and Dagger society and the Zeta Psi Fraternity and contributed to the development of the original Slope Day iteration.
After graduating from Cornell in 1902, Schoellkopf enrolled at Harvard Law School.
He played for the Harvard Crimson football team while he was a second-year law student at Harvard in 1903. He played principally at the fullback position and some at the halfback position. While playing at Harvard, Schoellkopf was 23 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighed 183 pounds.
After the 1903 college football season, Schoellkopf was selected as a first-team All-American fullback by Fielding H. Yost, Charles Chadwick, and the San Antonio Daily Light.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, he served for two years (1907 and 1908) as the head coach of Cornell"s football team In two years as Cornell"s coach, Schoellkopf compiled a record of 15 wins, three losses and one tie.
His winning percentage of.816 ranks second all-time among Cornell coaches, trailing only Raymond Starbuck but ranking ahead of Glenn "People’s" Warner. Schoellkopf moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he became a member in the law firm of Marksam & Schoellkopf and one of the most well known attorneys in Milwaukee.
In December 1912, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a revolver while alone in his office in Milwaukee.
He was aged 36 at the time of his death.
Membership
In response to Straight"s generous gift, members of the Schoellkopf family and the Zeta Psi Fraternity donated $70,000 (equivalent to $1,716,000 in 2016) for the construction of Schoellkopf Field in honor of the Schoellkopf family patriarch, Jacob F. Schoellkopf.