1883 Michigan Wolverines football team explained

Year:	1883
Team:	Michigan Wolverines
Sport:	football
Conference:	Independent
Record:	2–3
Head Coach:	None
Captain:	William J. Olcott
Stadium:	Ann Arbor Fairgrounds

The 1883 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1883 college football season. The Wolverines played their only home game at the Ann Arbor Fairgrounds.

Roster

The following is the roster of the 1883 team as listed in the University of Michigan yearbook, The Palladium, for 1884.^[1]
Forwards

• Elmer Beach (Treasurer of the Foot-Ball Association)
• Harry Bitner^[2]
• Horace Prettyman
• Henry Killilea
• Hugh P. Borden^[3]
• Richard Dott

Halfbacks

• Robert Campbell Gemmel, Salt Lake City, Utah^[4]
• Albert I. Moore

Three-Quarter Back

• William J. Olcott

Fullback

• Thomas W. Gilmore (President of the Foot-Ball Association)

Substitutes

• Raymond Walter Beach, from Atwood, Michigan^[5]
• Henry S. Mahon (Secretary of the Foot-Ball Association)^[6]
• Edgar B. Wright

Coaching staff

• Coach: No coach
• Captain: William J. Olcott
• Manager: Horace Prettyman

External links

• 1883 Football Team -- Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Athletics History
• The Michigan Argonaut, 1883-1884
• The Chronicle, 1883-1884
• The Palladium, 1884

Notes and References

1. Book: The Palladium. 1884. 71.
2. Harry Bitner was born approximately 1861 in Illinois. He was listed as a resident of Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Censuses. He was the son of Harry Bitner, born c. 1829, a farmer, and Emma E. Bittner, born c. 1830.
3. Hugh P. Borden was born in August 1858 in Indiana. He was listed as a resident of St. Joseph County, Indiana (either Olive or New Carlisle) in the 1870, 1900 and 1930 Censuses. In 1900, he was a farmer in Olive, residing with his wife Edith and children Clinton and Floyd. In 1930, he was engaged in general farming at New Carlisel.
4. Robert Campbell Gemmel was born on July 5, 1863, in Port Mathilda, PA, and received a degree in engineering from Michigan in 1884 and returned to Salt Lake City, where he was the assistant managing director of the Jackling allied porphyry mining properties He died on October 25, 1922, while traveling from Hurley, N.M., to Los Angeles. Biography published in the journal Mining and Mtallurgy, Number 192, at pp. 36-37.
5. Raymond Walter Beach, born November 29, 1863, in Percival, Iowa, formed the Beach & Beach law firm in Chicago with his brother, Elmer Beach. He was also the brother of noted novelist Rex Beach.
6. Mahon became a lawyer. He practiced in Detroit, Michigan, and later Duluth, Minnesota. He died in 1908 from rheumatism of the heart. See HENRY S. MAHON DEAD: Former Detroiter Passes Away at Home in Duluth, Detroit Free Press, July 2, 1908. His daughter, Winifred Mahon Sanford, was a noted short story writer in the 1920s and 1930s.