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Robert Emmons

American football player and coach, yachtsman, and millionaire (1872-1928)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ7344082
Source-derived summary

Robert Wales Emmons II (December 28, 1872 – April 18, 1928) was an American football player, coach, yachtsman, and millionaire. He played and coached college football for Harvard University from 1891 to 1895. He later had a successful career in the banking and stock brokerage business. He was an avid yachtsman who was the managing owner of the Resolute in its successful defense of the America's Cup in 1920.

Early life

Emmons was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1872. He was the son of Nathaniel H. Emmons and Eleanor G. (Bacon) Emmons. He attended preparatory school at Groton School.

Harvard

Emmons enrolled at Harvard University where he played college football as an end for the Harvard Crimson football team from 1891 to 1894. He was elected by his teammates to serve as captain of the 1894 Harvard football team. He was president of his class at Harvard as a junior, and The New York Times wrote that "[h]is popularity depends mostly upon the great enthusiasm with which he has clung to football at Harvard during four steady years of defeat." He graduated from Harvard in 1895 but returned on October 21, 1895, as the Harvard Crimson football team's head coach.

Editorial summary

“Robert Emmons” enters the record as american football player and coach, yachtsman, and millionaire (1872-1928). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, Emmons and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1872, 1928, 1891, 1895—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1872-12-28. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Robert, Emmons and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Robert Emmons” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robert, Emmons and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7344082. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1928, 1891 and 1895.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Emmons”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Robert Emmons primary sources, Robert Emmons archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Emmons”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Robert Emmons” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.