{{Short description|American football player (1893–1924)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college football player | name = Charley Barrett | image = Charley Barrett.jpg | caption = Barrett, {{Circa|1914}} | birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|11|3}} | birth_place = [[Bellevue, Pennsylvania]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|5|21|1893|11|3}} | death_place = [[Tucson, Arizona]], U.S. | currentposition = [[Quarterback]] | school= | currentnumber = 8 |height_ft=6 |height_in=0 |weight_lb=180 | pastschools = [[Cornell Big Red football|Cornell]] (1914–1915) |highlights = * [[College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS|National champion]] ([[1915 Cornell Big Red football team|1915]]) * 2× Consensus [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]] ([[1914 College Football All-America Team|1914]], [[1915 College Football All-America Team|1915]]) * First-team All-Service ([[1917 All-Service football team|1917]]) | CFBHOF_id=1273 | CFBHOF_year=1958 }} [[File:Charley Barrett LCCN2014697902.jpg|thumb|right|Charley Barrett in 1914]] '''Charley "Chuck" Barrett''' (November 3, 1893 – May 21, 1924) was an American [[American football|football]] player. He was the consensus All-American [[quarterback]] in 1914 and 1915 while playing for [[Cornell University]] and led Cornell to an undefeated season and [[NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship|national championship]] in 1915. He was elected to the [[College Football Hall of Fame]] in 1958.
==Early years== Barrett was born in [[Bellevue, Pennsylvania]], and raised in [[Cleveland, Ohio]]. He attended the [[University School (Ohio)|University School]] in Cleveland before enrolling at [[Cornell University]].<ref name=Cap />
==Cornell== At Cornell, Barrett was quarterback for the football team and a pitcher for the [[baseball]] team.<ref name=Cap /> He was Cornell's quarterback from 1913 to 1915 where he developed a reputation as "a real triple threat man" who kept opponents guessing, with his talents as a rusher, passer and kicker.<ref>{{cite news |title=Triple-Threat Artists the Big Thing These Days in the Game of Football |newspaper=The Miami News-Metropolis |date=1923-10-25 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IUEuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jtgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2535,350436&dq=charley-barrett+cornell&hl=en}}</ref> He led Cornell to a record of [[1914 Cornell Big Red football team|8–2]] in 1914 and [[1915 Cornell Big Red football team|9–0]] in 1915. The undefeated 1915 team was recognized as the national football champion and became known as "the 'Big Red' machine."<ref name=Obit>{{cite news |title=Great Cornell Quarterback Is Owned by Death |newspaper=Las Vegas Daily Optic |date=1924-05-22}}</ref>
In Barrett's final college football game, Cornell trailed the [[Penn Quakers football|Penn]] by a score of 9–0, but Barrett scored 24 points to lead the Big Red to a 24–9 victory. He scored on runs of 40, 25 and three yards and drop-kicked a field goal and three extra points.<ref name=CFHOF>{{cite web |title=Charley "Chuck" Barrett profile |publisher=College Football Hall of Fame |url={{College Football HoF/url|id=1273}}}}</ref> Barrett was selected as the consensus first-team All-American quarterback in both 1914 and 1915. He was also selected by his teammates as the captain of the 1915 football team.<ref name=Cap>{{cite news |title=Charles Barrett Is Cornell's New Leader: Cleveland Boy to Lead the 1914 Red and White Football Team |newspaper=The Day |date=1914-12-14 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XPogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bXUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4058,5048757&dq=charles-barrett+cornell&hl=en}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' called him "the greatest football player ever developed at Cornell."<ref name=NYT />
Barrett had difficulties keeping up with his classwork as a mechanical engineering student and was placed on academic probation in February 1915.<ref>{{cite news |title=CORNELL ATHLETES PLACED UNDER BAN: Ashmead, Basket Ball Star, and Barrett of Football Team Deficient in Studies |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1915-02-19 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/02/19/100142231.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=DEVOTED TO FOOTBALL: Barrett of Cornell Sacrifices Chances in Baseball for Gridiron Sport |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1915-03-07 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/03/07/104231373.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Cornell Suffers from Delinquency in Lessons |newspaper=The Day |date=1915-02-19 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JPogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aXUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5954,5354639&dq=charles-barrett+cornell&hl=en}}</ref> The probation was removed in time for Barrett to play for the football team in the fall of 1915.<ref>{{cite news |title=Football Men To Begin Work At Cornell |newspaper=The Day |date=1915-09-15 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3_ogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cnUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5049,1674628&dq=charles-barrett+cornell&hl=en}}</ref> In February 1916, Barrett was "busted out" of [[Cornell University College of Engineering|Cornell's College of Mechanical Engineering]] for failure to meet his scholastic requirements.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |title=Barrett "Busted Out" of Cornell: Great Football Player Unable to Meet Scholastic Requirements and Is Dropped |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1916-02-20 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/02/20/100336761.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=CORNELL MEN "BUSTED OUT": Two Football and One Crew Man Fail to Pass Examinations |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1916-02-17 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/02/17/100300193.pdf }}</ref>
==Later years and death== Barrett served as an ensign in the [[United States Navy]] during [[World War I]]. In 1918, he was injured in an explosion on the armored [[cruiser]] [[USS Brooklyn (CA-3)|USS Brooklyn]] in [[Yokohama]] harbor and never fully recovered from the injuries. After returning to the United States, Barrett lived in [[Bellevue, Pennsylvania]]. In November 1919, he married Edna Stevens in a private ceremony at the home of the bride's sister.<ref>{{cite news |title=Barrett-Stevens |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1919-11-23 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/11/23/118236043.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Barrett-Stevens Wedding Wednesday |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1919-11-17 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/11/17/98295455.pdf }}</ref> Barrett and his wife had two daughters.<ref>{{cite news |title=Famous Quarterback Loses Fight to Live |newspaper=Oakland Tribune |date=1924-05-22}}</ref>
Barrett later went into the real estate business in [[Los Angeles, California]]. He moved to [[Tucson, Arizona]] in 1923, hoping to recover his health. He died in Tucson in May 1924 at age 30.<ref name=Obit /><ref>{{cite news |title='CHUCK' BARRETT DIES IN TUCSON |newspaper=Cornell Daily Sun |date=1924-05-23 |url=https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/newscornell?a=d&d=CDS19240523.2.1.14&e=--------20--1-----all}}</ref>
In 1925, a bronze tablet was unveiled in the lobby of Cornell's Schoellkopf Memorial Clubhouse containing the following tribute to Barrett: "In memory of Charles Barrett, who died May 21, 1924, as a result of illness contracted in an explosion on the U.S.S. Brooklyn in Yokohama Harbor, Japan, during the World War. As a tribute to his splendid loyalty and leadership and as homage to a most worthy gridiron adversary, we respectfully dedicate this tablet to Cornell University. His teammates and friends, and the 1915 Pennsylvania football team."<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Barrett Tablet In Cornell Hall of Fame: Memorial to Gridiron Star and War Hero Unveiled by Old Penn Foemen |newspaper=Syracuse Herald |date=1925-10-18}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Cornell Big Red quarterback navbox}} {{Navboxes| title = Charley Barrett—championships, awards, and honors| list1 = {{1914 College Football Consensus All-Americans}} {{1915 College Football Consensus All-Americans}} {{1915 Cornell Big Red football navbox}} }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Charley}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1924 deaths]] [[Category:American football drop kickers]] [[Category:American football quarterbacks]] [[Category:Cornell Big Red football players]] [[Category:Newport Naval Reserves football players]] [[Category:All-American college football players]] [[Category:College Football Hall of Fame inductees]] [[Category:Cornell University College of Engineering alumni]] [[Category:Players of American football from Cleveland]] [[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]