Alumni Spotlight: Arthur Poe

An excerpt from “Former Lambda Chi Football Greats” The Cross and Crescent, September, 2010

By Jon Williamson (Maryland-College Park, ’65)

Arthur Poe served as the Chair of the Coe College Board of Trustees for 18 years, between 1933 and 1951 at the time of his death.

The history of our great Fraternity is so very rich that periodically it allows us to uncover a diamond, not in the rough, but one that is already brilliant. Our chapter at Coe College was installed on March 2, 1946, and was featured in the early spring 1946 issue of the Cross & Crescent.

The article includes a picture of the president of the Coe College Board of Trustees and identifies him as Arthur Poe (Coe HON), Princeton class of 1900, who was initiated on that date.

Lambda Chi Alpha has never had a chapter at Princeton University so I probed a little more deeply to find that Arthur Poe did indeed graduate from Princeton, class of 1900, and was a member of the Ivy Club, one of the preeminent eating clubs.

Arthur Poe was one of six Poe brothers to graduate from Princeton and they all played football. His father was the attorney general of Maryland and he was the grandnephew of Edgar Allan Poe, the poet and author.

After Princeton he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he would become the assistant plant manager and then the plant manager for the Quaker Oats Co. He was known as the “most useful citizen” of that city.

At one time or another he served as director of the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids; chairman of all Liberty Loan drives; president of the Princeton alumni class of 1900; president of the Cedar Rapids’ Chamber of Commerce; president of the Coe College Board of Trustees for 18 years; vice president of St. Luke’s Hospital; member of the International Board of Directors of the Y.M.C.A.; trustee of the School of Religion at the University of Iowa; chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Diocese of Iowa and also trustee of Iowa Episcopate Funds; and vice president of the Morris Plan Bank.

He was honored after his death in 1951 by the Quaker Oats Co., who erected a non-denominational chapel on the Coe College campus, the Poe Chapel, in his memory.

If we stopped here we’d have a great story of a brother who dedicated his life to the greater good of his community and who helped so many people. But this article is about football!

In 1898, Arthur Poe, a junior at Princeton, was 5’7” and weighed 145 pounds. Although not a large man, he must have been quick and fast.

In 1898 and 1899 the Princeton Tigers won 23 games, lost 1 and tied 1. To say the least they were a powerhouse.

The Ivy League was filled with rivalries, but none bigger than Princeton vs. Yale. In the 1898 game, Poe recovered a fumble and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown to defeat Yale 6–0. In 1899, I’m confident that the Yale faithful were supremely confident as the clock wound down to under a minute to play. Princeton held the ball at the Yale 20, but Yale held the lead 10 to 6.

Today, Mark Brunell (Washington 1992) would try to hit a tight end over the middle, but back then grind it out football would eat up the remaining precious few seconds. After a quick huddle, it was decided to let Poe try a field goal. Now there are a couple of things you need to understand: Poe had never attempted a field goal before, and a field goal was worth 5 points in 1899.

Well, you guessed it, the kick was good and Princeton won the game 11 to 10.

Art Poe’s life ended in 1951, and by any measure it was a very full life. He was an All-American end on Walter Camp’s 1899 All-American team; retroactively selected as the “Player of the Year” by the Helms Athletic Foundation; and in 1969, he was posthumously elected into the College Football Hall of Fame.