71 Facts About Bradbury Robinson

Bradbury Robinson played college football at the University of Wisconsin in 1903 and at Saint Louis University from 1904 to 1907.

Bradbury Robinson became the sport's first triple threat man, excelling at running, passing, and kicking.

Bradbury Robinson was a member of St Louis' "Olympic World's Champions" football team in 1904.

Bradbury Robinson graduated from Saint Louis University in 1908 with a medical degree and practiced as a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Bradbury Robinson returned to France after the war to study advanced medical techniques at the University of Bordeaux.

Bradbury Robinson returned to the United States in 1926 and practiced medicine in St Louis, Michigan, where he was twice elected the city's mayor.

The senior Bradbury Robinson spent most of his adult life working for railroads.

The younger Bradbury Robinson was three years old when the family moved again in 1887 to Baraboo, Wisconsin, to be near his mother's family.

Bradbury Robinson married the senior Robinson at her parents' farm in Merrimack, Wisconsin, some 11 miles from Baraboo, in June 1881.

Bradbury Robinson's husband served as Baraboo City Marshal from 1903 to 1904.

Bradbury Robinson attended Baraboo public schools and graduated from high school in 1902.

Bradbury Robinson was a first cousin four times removed of Bradbury Robinson, who fought for the patriots at Concord in 1775.

Generations of Robinson descendants have included males named "Bradbury" in honor of the Concord minuteman.

Bradbury Robinson enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and played for the Badgers varsity team as a freshman in the 1903 season.

Bradbury Robinson's arrival was seen by a sports reporter at the time as something of a godsend.

The disappointment was cured by the announcement that Bradbury Robinson, who weighs nearly 200 pounds, had resigned his place at the state insane asylum at Mendota [now part of Madison, Wisconsin] and would enter the football squad in perfect trim, having systematically trained for the past six weeks.

Bradbury Robinson taught high school in Baraboo before marrying future Wisconsin Congressman, Senator, Governor and Presidential candidate Robert M La Follette.

Bradbury Robinson wrote that the incident occurred in the locker room after a practice in which the bully roughly blindsided a teammate.

Bradbury Robinson warned the miscreant not to repeat such unsportsmanlike play.

The bully responded by sucker punching Bradbury Robinson, who defended himself with enthusiasm.

Absent the apology, as a matter of honor, Bradbury Robinson chose to leave Wisconsin, enrolling as a medical student at the Jesuit Saint Louis University, where he played the 1904 season, although he sat out many games with a broken shoulder blade.

Bradbury Robinson remained at that paper as a sports editor and columnist until his retirement in 1955.

Bradbury Robinson told me that he had tried it and found he could throw the ball like he could a baseball.

Long after transferring to St Louis, Bradbury Robinson maintained an unusually close relationship with his former team.

Bradbury Robinson almost convinced the Badgers to make a last minute alteration to their schedule to play an extra game in 1905.

Bradbury Robinson is in close touch with the athletic authorities at the Madison school and, knowing of their desire to play one more game this season, arranged the contest with St Louis University.

Each preseason, back home in Wisconsin, Bradbury Robinson was invited to work out with the Badgers and the development of the pass and possible pass plays continued at that venue.

So, if he wanted to play in Cochems' "outstanding football system", Bradbury Robinson would have to bring the 29-year-old coach to St Louis.

Bradbury Robinson brought with him 3 or 4 outstanding players.

Some 20 miles from the Lake Beulah training camp, on September 5,1906, Bradbury Robinson threw the first pass in a game against Carroll College at Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Bradbury Robinson took the fat, rugby-style ball and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Schneider.

We were in the second half and the game was tied when Bradbury Robinson called the pass.

Bradbury Robinson threw the long passes and Schneider the bullet-fast short ones.

Bradbury Robinson was the first-ever winner of the Army Athletic Association Award.

Bradbury Robinson would become a member of the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee in 1907 and be prominent in the game for the next three decades.

Bradbury Robinson looks as though 40 yards is dead for him, and he's got accuracy with it.

Bradbury Robinson looked him in the eye and said they would pass soon enough, and more than that, he would tell Bruner when it was coming.

Bradbury Robinson went back into punt formation and shouted to Bruner that they were going to show him the pass and to warn the rest of his team, because they were going to see something.

Brad Bradbury Robinson got hold of the ball, waited for Schneider to run down to the goal line and then let fly.

One pass in particular made by Bradbury Robinson to Schneider, which resulted in a touchdown, was a marvel of distance, accuracy and result.

Professor Watterson wrote that, "Bradbury Robinson ended up using passes that ranged from thirty to more than forty yards with devastating efficiency".

Coach Nelson related that some observers chalked up Bradbury Robinson's passing prowess to an anatomical advantage.

Bradbury Robinson believed his physical advantage was the result of accident as well as genes.

Bradbury Robinson credited his uncanny ability to throw long and accurate passes in part to a crooked little finger on his throwing hand that was the result of a childhood injury.

Bradbury Robinson is good for at least 45 yards every time he puts his toe to the ball and some of his punts have gone 60 yards.

Years before the term was commonly used by sportswriters, Bradbury Robinson had become the sport's first triple threat.

We believe that Bradbury Robinson was the first triple-threat man in history because throughout the [1906] season Cochems used Bradbury Robinson to pass, kick and run the ball.

Bradbury Robinson has demonstrated, since his entrance at the blue and white school, that he is a good all-around athlete.

Bradbury Robinson played an excellent game at end for Cochems' eleven and did all the kicking for that team.

Bradbury Robinson's punting was consistent and proved a very valuable asset to the blue and white eleven.

Bradbury Robinson is a clever fielder and one of the hardest hitters on the varsity team.

Bradbury Robinson led the batters in the Bank Clerks' league, in which organization he played after the close of the collegiate season last year.

Bradbury Robinson is a good hurdler and at present is pushing Schneider hard for the supremacy in this event at the Jesuit school.

Bradbury Robinson was captain of the track team last year.

That Bradbury Robinson is a competent and loyal man to fill this position was evidenced by the manner in which he conducted himself Saturday evening.

Bradbury Robinson took first in the shot-put and ran almost a dead heat with Clancy in the hurdles, taking second place.

Bradbury Robinson pursued pre-med studies at Wisconsin before enrolling as a medical student at Saint Louis in 1904, where he earned his Bachelor of Science and medical degrees in 1908.

Bradbury Robinson was elected to lead SLU's chapter of the Chi Zeta Chi Medical Society.

Bradbury Robinson served as an analyst on college football broadcasts, one season being teamed with play-by-play man Ronald Reagan.

Bradbury Robinson was then assigned to the command of Company L, 340th Infantry Regiment of the 85th Division.

Bradbury Robinson met Yvonne Marie Dewachter in 1919 while both were students at the University of Bordeaux.

The growing family moved from one European city to another as Robinson continued clinical studies across the continent from 1920 to 1926, while serving as a surgeon on the staff of Hugh S Cumming, Surgeon General of the United States.

Bradbury Robinson inaugurated a plan for the medical inspection of immigrants abroad in the principal countries of origin.

Bradbury Robinson was drawn to the small city because of its natural mineral-rich water, which he believed would play an important role in his naturopathic and holistic medical practice.

Bradbury Robinson cited the increased use of refined sugar as a particular threat to good health, an idea scoffed at during his lifetime and decades later, but an observation supported by an exhaustive study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014 and reported by the Harvard Heart Letter that year and in 2016.

In 1947, Bradbury Robinson became one of the earliest to warn of the dangers of using the pesticide DDT in agriculture.

Bradbury Robinson was a member of the Baptist church, a Knight Templar, a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight of Pythias, an Odd Fellow, and a post commander of the American Legion.

Bradbury Robinson was a Republican and attended state conventions of that party.

Bradbury Robinson was twice elected mayor of St Louis, Michigan, in 1931 and 1937.

Bradbury Robinson died at the Veterans Hospital in Bay Pines, Florida in 1949 from complications following routine surgery.

Bradbury Robinson was inducted into the St Louis Billiken Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the Baraboo High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.