Jac Weller

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Jac Weller
Princeton Tigers – No. 99
PositionGuard
ClassGraduate
Personal information
Born:(1913-01-06)January 6, 1913
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Died:August 18, 1994(1994-08-18) (aged 81)
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight195 lb (88 kg)
Career history
College
High schoolThe Hun School
Career highlights and awards
College Football Hall of Fame (1957)

John "Jac" Weller (January 6, 1913 – August 18, 1994) was an American college football player, firearms expert and military historian. He was a consensus All-American in 1935 at the guard position. He played for Fritz Crisler's Princeton Tigers football team at Princeton University that went 25–1 during Weller's three years on the team. Weller later became known as a firearms expert and published several works on munitions and military history.

Football player at Princeton

Weller was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended preparatory school at The Hun School before enrolling at Princeton University.[1] At Princeton, Weller was a star lineman for Fritz Crisler's Princeton Tigers football championship teams of the mid-1930s. Crisler began the practice of having players wear numbers on their jerseys while Weller was a student, and Crisler assigned the number 99 to his best player—Jack Weller.[2] During Weller's three seasons at Princeton, the football team compiled a record of 25 wins against a single loss. The only loss was a 7-0 loss to rival Yale in 1934. In 1935, Princeton had a perfect record of 9-0, and Weller was recognized as a consensus All-American at the guard position. Weller later recalled, "We had one of the finest bunch of football players ever to come to Princeton...in four years, no major opponent ever scored more than one touchdown on us."[3] He was drafted in the seventh round of the 1936 NFL Draft.[4]

Later years

After graduating, and marrying Cornelia Murray, Weller settled in Princeton, New Jersey, where he operated a real estate and insurance business.[3] Weller maintained a lifelong interest in firearms and was an honorary curator of the West Point Museum in the 1960s.[5][6] In 1962, he conducted new ballistics tests that established that Italian anarchist Nicola Sacco was guilty, and Bartolomeo Venzetti not guilty of the 1920 murders for which both were convicted.[6] He was also the author of several books on military weapons and tactics.[3] His published works include:

  • Guns of Destiny: Field Artillery in the Trenton-Princeton Campaign,[7]
  • Nathan Bedford Forrest, A Redleg in Disguise,[8]
  • Revolutionary West Point,[9]
  • On Wellington: The Duke and His Art of War,[10]
  • Wellington in India
  • Wellington in the Peninsula (1992).[11]
  • Wellington at Waterloo,[12]
  • Recollections of John Gale Hun,[13]
  • Good and Bad Weapons for Vietnam.[14]

Weller was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. Weller was also one of the initial inductees into The Hun School's Athletic Hall of Fame.[15]

Weller died in 1994 in Princeton at age 81 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.[16] He left his military books, photograph albums, notes, and offprints to the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University Library. His farm eventually became the basis for Barbara Smoyer Park in Princeton.[17]

References

  1. ^ William Wallace, Yale's Ironmen, iUniverse, Incorporated, (September 2005), p. 58
  2. ^ William Wallace, Yale's Ironmen, p. 66
  3. ^ a b c John "Jac" Weller at the College Football Hall of Fame
  4. ^ "1936 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  5. ^ "Don't Tread on Me". Denton Record-Chronicle. November 27, 1970.
  6. ^ a b "New Tests Absolve Vanzetti, Tag Sacco As 1920 Killer". Fresno Bee Republican (UP wire story). February 7, 1962.
  7. ^ Jac Weller (1956). "Guns of Destiny: Field Artillery in the Trenton-Princeton Campaign, 25 December 1776 to 3 January 1777". Military Affairs. 20 (1): 1–15. doi:10.2307/1982625. JSTOR 1982625.
  8. ^ Nathan Bedford Forrest, A Redleg in Disguise
  9. ^ Gerald Stowe and Jac Weller (1955). "Revolutionary West Point: The Key to the Continent". Military Affairs. 19 (2): 81–98. doi:10.2307/1983343. JSTOR 1983343.
  10. ^ Jac Weller (1998). On Wellington: The Duke and His Art of War. Greenhill Books.
  11. ^ "Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808–1814". Good reads.
  12. ^ Jac Weller (1967). Wellington at Waterloo. New York, Crowell.
  13. ^ Cornelia and Jac Weller, "Recollections of John Gale Hun," Princeton, New Jersey, 31 August 1978
  14. ^ Jac Weller. "Good and Bad Weapons for Vietnam" (PDF). Military Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  15. ^ "Athletic Hall of Fame". The Hun School. Archived from the original on August 2, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  16. ^ "Town Topics". Donald C. Stuart, Jr., 1946-1981, Dan D. Coyle, 1946-1973, Donald C. Stuart III, 1981-2001, Lynn Adams Smith, 2001-. August 31, 1994.
  17. ^ "Barbara Smoyer Park".