Walter "Wally" Koppisch Scrapbooks

Collection

Identifier: MSSP_10051

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Content Description

This collection consists of scrapbooks and loose material gathered by football player and athlete Walter "Wally" Koppisch (1901-1953). Two large disbound scrapbooks chronicle Koppisch's athletic career at Masten Park High School in Buffalo, New York, (1919-1920) and then at Columbia University (1920-1925). The second scrapbook also contains a small amount of material about his year with the professional Buffalo Bisons football team in 1925. The collection mostly includes newspaper clippings, with smaller amounts of ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and other manuscript material.

Dates

Creation: 1919-1950
Creation: Majority of material found within 1919-1924

Creator

Koppisch, Walter, 1901-1953 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical / Historical

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Walter "Wally" Koppisch (1901-1953) was an American football player and athlete. Raised in Buffalo, New York, Koppisch was a star athlete at Masten Park High School (now City Honors School), leading the football team to several city championships. He was also an award-winning track runner.

After graduating high school, Koppisch was recruited by several colleges, and he chose to enroll at Columbia University in New York City. At Columbia, he was a standout runnngback for the varsity football team in 1922, 1923, and 1924. His teammates elected him captain of the football team in each of his three varsity seasons. In 1923, sportswriter Walter Camp named him a third team All-American, and, in 1924, Camp named Koppisch a halfback on his All-American team. During his time on the football team, he weas teammtes with future New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig. At Columbia, Koppisch was also a member of the varsity track team.

After graduating from Columbia, Koppisch returned to Buffalo in 1925 to become the head coach and a player for the professional Buffalo Bisons football team. Buffalo struggled to a 1-6-2 record, and in 1926, Koppisch played football for the New York Giants. He retired from football after 1926 and remained in New York City where he worked as a stock broker and then as an investigator for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Koppisch died in New York in 1953. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.