William Wilson Talcott (December 4, 1878 – August 24, 1922) was an American football player, school teacher, newspaper publisher, and ice cream manufacturer.
Talcott played college football for the University of Michigan in 1897 and 1898 and was the starting quarterback for the undefeated 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team. After graduating from Michigan, he worked as a school teacher in Illinois and Michigan.
He entered the newspaper publishing business in 1905 and published The Englewood Economist from September 1906 to January 1918. From 1918 to 1920, he was the business manager of the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune. He later went into the ice cream business in Chicago.
In August 1922, Talcott led a legal battle with the head of a so-called "love cult" with which his wife had become involved. The legal battle received national newspaper coverage. When his wife refused to part ways with the cult, Talcott committed suicide by jumping from an excursion boat off the shore of Chicago with rocks in his pockets.
Early years
Talcott was born in December 1878 in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was the second of five children of Charles Ransom Talcott and Harriet E. Malone, who were married in October 1873. His father was a native of Valparaiso who began his career as a school teacher. From 1874 to 1886, his father was the publisher of the Porter County Vidette, a local newspaper in Valparaiso.
In August 1886, when Talcott was seven years old, the family moved to Chicago where his father worked for many years at the Western Publishing House. After the family's move to Chicago, Talcott grew up in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. He attended the public schools in Englewood and graduated from Englewood High School.
As a senior in the fall of 1896, Talcott was captain and quarterback of the Englewood High School football team. In September 1896, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "Englewood has always come into the field with a team of strong and heavy men. This year's team will be no exception to the rule ... Talcott, quarter back, is Captain, and he has all of last year's line men to work with." The 1896 Englewood team, led by Talcott and end Clayton Teetzel, won the Cook County football championship. The season ended with a 38–6 victory over Hyde Park, which was described in the Englewood High School newspaper as follows: "The final game with Hyde Park ... was the greatest of all. To defeat our ancient rivals was the happiest ambition of the team. The defeat of '95 still rankles in the breasts of seven of the team, and they were determined to do or die. 'It was a glorious victory,' the score being 38 to 6, when time was called because of darkness with ten minutes yet to play."
University of Michigan
In the fall of 1897, Talcott and his Englewood teammate Clayton Teetzel enrolled at the University of Michigan as students in the Literary Department. During Talcott's freshman year, he played as a backup quarterback for the 1897 Michigan Wolverines football team. He also joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity in 1897. In its annual publication, The Shield, the fraternity reported that the Michigan chapter was "proud" in having Talcott play "quarter in a number of the games."
As a sophomore, Talcott was the starting quarterback in six of ten games for the undefeated 1898 Michigan football team that won the school's first Western Conference (as the Big Ten was then known) championship and prompted Louis Elbel to compose Michigan's fight song, "The Victors." In the early days of football, players were required to play on both offense and defense. On defense, Talcott was a linebacker. Blocking was known at the time as "interference," and after a 23–0 victory over Notre Dame in October 1898, The Michigan Alumnus wrote that "Talcott shone in the interference."
During his junior year, Talcott did not return to the varsity football team, and was instead the captain of the junior class football team. As a senior in the fall of 1900, Talcott was an assistant coach under Langdon Lea for Michigan's varsity football team, "winning quite a reputation for himself in that line." Talcott also served as the Chairman of the Senior Literary Social Committee. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1901.