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W.B. "Billy" Laswell
Fullback / Punter / Kicker
Butte Football Club
The fastest 220 and 440 man in the Northwest, Billy
Laswell got his start with the Multnomah Amateur
Athletic Club, and by 1895 was recruited to play in
Butte, Montana by the "Copper Kings", millionaire mining
company owners with a desire for football competition,
prestige and a little bit of drama in their claim to be
the Best.
Laswell along with a collection of
former collegiate stars were dominating the Northwest
and West Coast in such fashion, that on a December 1896
trip to California, Laswell was threatened with
"suspension" pending an investigation by the Pacific
Athletic Association into professionalism prior to two
games with the Olympic Club of San Francisco. The
charges could not be proven and with Laswell on the
field, the Buttes dominated Olympic 18-0 with Laswell
scoring on a 30-yard run, kicking goals and hammering
long punts during the Christmas Day event.
The following game played on New Years Day came off
after a drama-filled week of threats and grumbling about
Laswell. Just prior to the game, W.F. Humphrey,
president of the AAU of the Pacific Coast declared
Laswell a "professional" for having been a pacer in a
bicycle race and thereby declared ALL of the Butte
players professionals and subject to suspension for
1897. The distraction was enough for Olympic and
their "ringers" from Stanford to defeat Butte 14-4, the
only loss of the season that saw victories over teams
from Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, Oregon, and California.
More drama ensued as Olympic withheld the
proceeds of the gates owed to Butte claiming the ruling
by Humphrey as grounds. In February, Laswell's
suspension was overturned and the charade exposed.
Butte vowed to never play Olympic Club ever again.
Billy Laswell was such a disrupting force on the
gridiron as a runner, as a kicker, and as a tackler in
1896, his selection as the top player in the Northwest
was undisputed, despite opponents trying every trick to
keep him off the field.
He played one more season
with Butte, and in 1900 came down with pneumonia and
died at the age of 27.
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