Hamilton Corbett

Hamilton Corbett

Harvard Crimson
Position	Fullback, Halfback
Career history
College	Harvard (1908–1910)
Personal information
Date of birth	December 13, 1888
Place of birth	Portland, Oregon
Date of death	May 7, 1966 (aged 77)
Place of death	Portland, Oregon
Career highlights and awards
Consensus All-American (1908)

Hamilton Forbush "Ham" Corbett (December 13, 1888 – May 7, 1966) was an American football player. He played college football for Harvard University and was a consensus first-team selection to the 1908 College Football All-America Team.

Early life

Corbett was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1888, the son of Henry J. Corbett and Helen Ladd Corbett. The Corbett family was one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Oregon at that time. One of Corbett's grandfathers was Henry W. Corbett, a successful businessman and United States senator from Oregon. His other grandfather, William S. Ladd, was the mayor of Portland and founder the Ladd and Tilton Bank, the first bank established in the state of Oregon.^[1][2]

Corbett grew up in Portland, where he attended the Portland Academy. His father died in 1895, when he was 7 years old.^[3] Since his father was already dead when his grandfather, Henry W. Corbett, died in 1903, Corbett and his two older brothers (Henry L. Corbett and Elliott R. Corbett) inherited the bulk of the Corbett family fortune. His grandfather's estate was valued at approximately $5,000,000, making all three young men very wealthy.^[2][4]

Sports career

Corbett attended Harvard College from 1907 to 1911 and played on the freshman football team in 1907. He was five feet, eleven inches tall and weighed 167 pounds while at Harvard.^[5] From 1908 to 1910, he played on the Harvard Crimson football team. He was selected as a consensus first-team fullback on the 1908 College Football All-America Team.^[6] In 1909, Walter Camp selected him as a third-team All-American at the halfback position.^[7] In 1910, he was selected as a first-team All-American halfback by sports writer, W.S. Farnsworth, of the New York Evening Journal,^[8] and a second-team All-American by The New York Times.^[9]

In the fall of 1913, he served as an assistant coach under Percy Haughton for the 1913 Harvard Crimson football team.^[10]

Later life

In May 1917, with the United States entry into World War I, Corbett entered the Officer's Training Camp at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant and sailed to France in September 1917, serving there with the 151st Field Artillery, 42nd Division. He was wounded in July 1918 and was promoted to captain. When the war ended, he remained with the occupation forces in Germany, serving as aide-de-camp to Major General James Harbord. He was discharged from the military in May 1919.^[11]

Corbett was married to Harriet Cumming at Portland in 1922.^[12]

Corbett was a partner with his brothers in a number of large real estate ventures in Portland. In 1926, Corbett and his brothers built the ten-story Pacific Building on property they owned across the street from the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland. The building site was once the home of their grandfather, Henry W. Corbett.^[13][14] The real estate holding company owned by the Corbett brothers, sold several of its downtown buildings in 1956. The properties included the Pacific Building, the ten-story Corbett Building, and the Corbett Brothers Auto Storage Garage plus two quarter-block lots in downtown Portland.^[15][16]

Corbett died in Portland in 1966 at age 77.^[17][18] Today, the Pacific Building, built by Corbett and his brothers, is a historic landmark in downtown Portland. The classic ten-story office building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[14]

References

1. "Corbett Rites Set Thursday", The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 24 April 1957, p. 11.
2. "Corbett, H. L. and Gretchen Hoyt, House", National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, Portland, Oregon, 15 July 1990.
3. "Henry J. Corbett Dead", Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 3 March 1895, p. 8.
4. "Gives to Charity…Grandsons are Made the Residuary Legatees", Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 5 April 1903, p. 1.
5. "Who Will Play for Harvard: Statistics of Regulars and Substitutes on Crimson Team". Boston Evening Transcript. November 19, 1908. p. 2.
6. "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. p. 4. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
7. "Six Yale Men on Camp's First Team". The New York Times. December 19, 1909.
8. Farnsworth, W.S. (1910-12-04). "Picking All-Stars Is No Easy Task: Backfield Men Show Greater Individuality Then Men on the Line and Are More Easily Chosen". The Billings Daily Gazette.
9. "5 HARVARD MEN ON ALL-AMERICAN TEAM; Superiority of Crimson Players Earns Places on Picked Football Eleven" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-12-04.
10. ""Ham" Corbett to Coach at Harvard". The New York Times. October 31, 1913.
11. Frederick Sumner Mead, ed. (1921). Harvard's Military Record in the World War. The Harvard Alumni Association. p. 215.
12. "Marriages". The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 29. September 1920. p. 169.
13. "Pacific Building Opens", Morning Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 7 April 1926, p. 7.
14. "Pacific Building", National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Portland, Oregon, 3 January 1992.
15. "5 Buildings Sold in City", The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 8 November 1956, p. 1.
16. "Downtown Deals Mark Year", The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, 30 December 1956, p. 20.
17. Social Security Death Index. Number: 541-01-5224; Issue State: Oregon; Issue Date: Before 1951. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line].
18. Death record for Hamilton F. Corbett, Oregon State Library; 1966-1970 Death Index. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Oregon, Death Index, 1898-2008 [database on-line].