Otto Carpell

Otto Christ Carpell (November 12, 1889 – October 11, 1918) was an American football player for the University of Michigan. He played halfback for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1909 to 1912. He became an aviation combat pilot during World War I and was one of four Michigan football players to be killed in the war.

Otto Carpell
Carpell cropped from 1912 Michigan team photograph
Born:November 12, 1889
Saginaw, Michigan
Died:October 11, 1918 (aged 28)
West Point, Mississippi
Career information
Position(s)Halfback
CollegeMichigan
Career history
As player
1909–1912Michigan

Carpell was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1889, the son of Maximillian A. and Elizabeth (Heydrich) Carpell.[1]

Carpell enrolled at the University of Michigan and played for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1909 to 1912 under head coach Fielding H. Yost.

1911 Michigan Wolverines football team

After graduating from Michigan, Carpell went into the real estate brokerage business in Detroit with an office in the Penobscot Building.

In 1913, he served as the head football coach at Albion College. He led the Albion Britons to a record of 2-3-2 in his one season as head coach.[2]

Following the United States entry into World War I, Carpell was inducted into the U.S. Army on December 1, 1917. He was assigned to the Pilot Aviation Section and transferred to Berkeley, California, and then Dallas, Texas for training. Carpell attained the rank of second lieutenant, Aviation Section, Signal Corps, US Army, and received his commission as aviation combat pilot following his graduation from the School of Military Aeronautics at Columbus, Ohio. On January 1, 1918, he announced his engagement to Beatrice Merriam of Detroit. In October 1918, he died of a cause variously reported as heart failure or pneumonia following an outbreak of Spanish influenza while serving at Payne Field in West Point, Mississippi.[3][4] In November 1921, a bronze memorial tablet was unveiled at Michigan's football stadium to honor Carpell and three other Michigan football players who died while serving in World War I. The others included Curtis Redden and Efton James.[5]

References
  1. "Michigan's Gold Star Record: World War I". Michigan History Magazine, Volume 29. 1945. p. 281.
  2. "Albion Fall Sports Media Guide" (PDF). Albion College. 2011. pp. 25, 28.
  3. "Last Rites for Otto C. Carpell: Former Michigan Football Star Will Be Buried From His Late Saginaw Home Tuesday Morning". Detroit Free Press. October 15, 1918.
  4. George Newman Fuller, Lewis Beeson (1922). "Historical News, Notes and Comment". Michigan History Magazine, Volume 6, No. 1. p. 18.
  5. "In Honor of Michigan's 'M' Men Who Died In The War". The Michigan Alumnus. November 1921. p. 200.(a fourth Michigan letterman, Howard R. Smith, was also killed in the war, but he was not a varsity football player.
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