Rammy Ramsdell
Ramsdell in football uniform.
Florida Gators
PositionQuarterback
Personal information
Born:(1894-11-06)November 6, 1894
Ocala, Florida
Died:April 14, 1977(1977-04-14) (aged 82)
Plant City, Florida
Height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight150 lb (68 kg)
Career history
CollegeFlorida (1913–1915)
High schoolHillsborough
Career highlights and awards

Ashley Wakefield "Rammy" Ramsdell (November 6, 1894 – April 14, 1977) was a college football, baseball, and basketball player and track athlete for the Florida Gators of the University of Florida. Ramsdell's athletic career was prematurely ended when he broke his leg playing baseball at the end of his junior year.[1] He was the first scholarship athlete at the University of Florida.[1] According to one writer "the Gators' first quarterback of note,"[1] he is the oldest player at the position in the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, inducted in 1971. He was picked for an all-time Florida team at the position in 1927.[2]

Early years

Ashley Wakefield Ramsdell was born on November 6, 1894, in Ocala, Florida.[3] He attended Hillsborough High School in Tampa, class of 1913.[4] Future Gator teammate Rex Farrior also attended.[5] As an end on the football team, Ramsdell dropped a pass to tie the state championship game.[6] The basketball team however did win a state title.[1] Ramsdell is in the school's hall of fame.[4][7]

University of Florida

Ramsdell attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played several sports for the Florida Gators. Ramsdell was the starting quarterback for two seasons on the football team, a centerfielder on the baseball team, and a member of Florida's first basketball squad.[1]

Ramsdell began his collegiate athletic career on Florida's freshman football team, when he was taught the quarterback position by coach and former Gator quarterback Bob Shackleford.[6] Then he played for coaches George E. Pyle and C. J. McCoy on the varsity Florida Gators football team from 1913 to 1915. The highlight of his football career was a 60-yard touchdown run in the rain to defeat Tulane in 1915.[8] Ramsdell also scored four touchdowns in the game with Mercer that year.[9][10][11]

While running the bases during a baseball game against Auburn in 1915, Ramsdell accidentally stepped on the foot of first baseman George Steed and got his spikes caught in Steed's laces, which resulted in Ramsdell breaking his left leg with "a loud cracking noise".[6] The serious injury ended Ramsdell's collegiate athletic career. Without their projected starting quarterback, the Gator football team went 0–5 and did not score a touchdown during the subsequent 1916 season.[12]

Later life

Ramsdell married Geneva E. Mosley on June 2, 1917.[13] Their daughter Jean was a Tampa philanthropist.[14][15] Ramsdell's First World War registration says he is a schoolteacher in Tampa.[16] He later settled in Plant City and owned a trucking company. After a stroke in 1950, he sold the business.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Joey Johnston (September 19, 1999). "'Rammy' remembered as versatile, hard-hitting: Tampa Bay's All-Century Team: No. 98 Rammy Ramsdell". The Tampa Tribune. p. 39. Retrieved November 8, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  2. ↑ "Writer Picks All-Time Gator Eleven, Going Back 10 Years To Name Taylor And Storter". The Evening Independent. October 14, 1927. p. 5A.
  3. ↑ "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5B-7V8G : accessed July 4, 2015), Ashley Wakefield Ramsdell, 1920; citing Passport Application, Maryland, United States, source certificate #55610, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925, 1264, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm
  4. 1 2 "Rammy Ramsdell - Hillsborough Terrier Football - We Are The Big Red".
  5. ↑ "Rex Farrior - Hillsborough Terrier Football - We Are The Big Red".
  6. 1 2 3 "Interview with J. Rex Farrior, Sr. (September 6, 1980)". ufdc.ufl.edu.
  7. ↑ "Sports: Fourteen set to enter Hillsborough hall of fame". www.sptimes.com.
  8. ↑ "Florida Wallops Tulane Warriors". The Tampa Tribune. November 19, 1915. p. 7. Retrieved November 7, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ↑ Rachel George (September 26, 2010). "Where Florida freshman Trey Burton's six-touchdown game ranks".
  10. ↑ Mark Stewart (July 30, 2010). The Florida Gators. p. 36. ISBN 9781599533339.
  11. ↑ "Tebow Leads Football to Victory at South Carolina, 51-31". November 11, 2007.
  12. ↑ McEwen 1974, p. 60
  13. ↑ "Florida Marriages, 1837-1974," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FW31-S5S : December 12, 2014), Ashley Wakefield Ramsdell and Geneva E. Mosley, June 2, 1917; citing Hillsborough, Florida; FHL microfilm 978,324.
  14. ↑ "Tampabay: Philanthropist, avid Yankees fan". www.sptimes.com.
  15. ↑ "Death Exposes A Double Life".
  16. ↑ "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K356-FT6 : December 12, 2014), Ashley Wakefield Ramsdell, 1917-1918; citing Tampa City no 1, Florida, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,556,894.
  • McEwen, Tom (1974). The Gators: A Story of Florida Football. Huntsville, Alabama: The Strode Publishers. ISBN 0-87397-025-X.
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