John Clum is best known for his time in Tombstone, as a newspaperman, mayor, and friend of the Earps and Doc Holliday. But when he was a bit young, Clum was a different sort of pioneer.
In September 1870, he attended Rutgers University in New Jersey and joined the football team. He knew nothing of the game, which was only a year old and closer to a mix between rugby and soccer than the modern game. There

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus