Aubrey Lanier


Aubrey Falls "Laney" Lanier was a college football player.

Early years

Aubrey was born on February 18, 1888, in the city of Butler in Lonoke County, Arkansas, to Isaac Hill Lanier and Mary "Ellen" Cooper.

Sewanee

He was a halfback for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee: The University of the South from 1907 to 1910, thrice selected All-Southern. Vanderbilt head coach Dan McGugin rated him as one of the greatest he ever saw. Grantland Rice rated him amongst the best ever at punt returns. He would catch punts whilst running at full speed. An all-time Sewanee team noted "Critics declare Aubrey Lanier the equal of Walter Eckersall as a safety man." In 1915, John Heisman selected the 30 greatest Southern football players, and mentioned Lanier 21st.

1907

McGugin said of Lanier in 1907 that he was "a star of purest ray, and came near winning the Vanderbilt game by his brilliant dashes after receiving punts."

1909

In 1909 when Sewanee won an SIAA championship Rice called him "the noblest Tiger of them all." The Kappa Alpha Journal gives similar praise that year, calling Lanier "The greatest performer of the college game on the Southern field.

1910

Lanier was captain of the 1910 Sewanee team.