Charlie Caldwell (College football. Born, Bristol, VA-TN, Aug. 2, 1901; died, Princeton, NJ, Nov. 1, 1957.) In the glory days of single-wing football at Princeton, Charles W. Caldwell, Jr., abjured the T-formation successfully by winning with the supposedly “outmoded” formation. Caldwell took over the Tigers in 1945, moving from Williams. His immediate post-war teams were not good (14-15-2 from 1945-48). A dramatic improvement in talent led to a commensurate improvement in the record to 6-3 in 1949. Led by Dick Kazmaier, the Tigers started a 24-game winning streak that included 9-0 seasons in 1950 and 1951. Penn broke the streak with a 13-7 win at Princeton in 1952, but Princeton then won nine more to give the Tigers 33 wins in 34 games. In his 12 seasons (1945-56) at Princeton, Caldwell was 70-30-3. An athlete in his younger days, Caldwell was a baseball pitcher who earned a brief trip to the Yankees in 1925. He pitched in only three games (0-0) but while pitching batting practice hit first baseman Wally Pipp with a stray pitch, leading to the sequence of events that put Lou Gehrig at first for the Yankees for the next 14 years.
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The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel. We welcome public and scholarly contributions and suggestions.
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About Bill Shannon
A prolific author, wire service sports reporter, long time Major League Baseball official scorer, football statistician, sports museum founder, theatrical agency owner and public ... read more
