Tom Butkiewicz: 1904 All-American remembered as "attorney and war hero"
Nanticoke native won a national championship at Penn.
Nanticoke High School graduate Tom Butkiewicz’s performance on the football field in 1904 earned him plenty of acclaim.
As the starting left tackle, Butkiewicz helped the University of Pennsylvania go 12-0 and win a national championship while being selected a third-team Walter Camp All-American.
The Chicago Record-Herald took Butkiewicz’s All-America status one step further, however, levying a first-team label on the senior.
“This man introduced a new system in football. He played like a goat,” the newspaper said. “When the team lined up, what’s-his-name got down on all fours and as the ball was snapped, he sprang through the air head down and yelling. Nothing stayed in front of him and the man with the ball followed him from behind.”
Butkiewicz was one of three Penn All-Americans in 1904 from Northeastern Pennsylvania, joined by fellow Nanticoke native Frank Piekarski and Marshall Reynolds, of Tunkhannock. Remember, too, Princeton’s Jim Cooney, of Scranton, was an All-American that season.
In 1922, The Philadelphia Inquirer published what it called a “consensus” All-Penn team based on a conversation among “eminent alumni” of the school. Butkiewicz was one of two tackles selected, along with John Outland, namesake of the famous award annually given to the best interior lineman in college football.
Born July 21, 1883, Butkiewicz died in 1930. He was 47 and died of an illness contracted while serving in World War I.
“Mr. Butkiewicz’s career was that of a celebrated athlete, a successful lawyer, a capable public prosecutor and an army officer whose heroism on the field of battle won for him decorations for bravery by three of the allied nations of the World War,” The Wilkes-Barre Record reported.
Butkiewicz’s distinguished legal and military careers were well chronicled in a 2023 article by Ed Lewis of the Times Leader. Click this link to read more.
Greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area All-American roll call
1894: Charles Gelbert, University of Pennsylvania (Hawley native, Scranton public schools)
1895: Alfred E. Bull, University of Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre native, Wyoming Seminary); Charles Gelbert, University of Pennsylvania (Hawley native, Scranton public schools)
1896: Charles Gelbert, University of Pennsylvania (Hawley native, Scranton public schools)
1903: Frank Piekarski, University of Pennsylvania (Nanticoke native, Wyoming Seminary)
1904: Tom Butkiewicz, University of Pennsylvania (Nanticoke native); James Cooney, University of Pennsylvania (Scranton native, School of Lackawanna); Frank Piekarski, University of Pennsylvania (Nanticoke native, Wyoming Seminary)
1906: James Cooney, University of Pennsylvania (Scranton native, School of Lackawanna)