James Baird

James Baird (May 18, 1873 – May 16, 1953) was an American civil engineer, football player and coach. He played football for the University of Michigan from 1892 to 1895 and was captain of the 1894 team. He was also an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898. He worked for the George A. Fuller Co. for 23 years and eventually became its president. He later formed his own construction company called the James Baird Company. Baird directed the construction of many important buildings, including the Flatiron Building, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Early years Baird was born in Vanceburg, Kentucky, and attended high schools in Chicago, Illinois and Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father, Lyman Beecher Baird (September 6, 1833 – October 24, 1907), was an Ohio native who worked as a farmer and merchant. In the 1880 United States Census, Lyman Baird was identified as a grocer in Vanceburg. He also operated a hardware store in Vanceburg that burned in the 1880s. His mother was Frances Amelia (Halbert) Baird, and he had an older brother Charles A. Baird (born c. 1869). University of Michigan He enrolled at the University of Michigan where he played quarterback for the football team from 1892 to 1895. He was captain of the 1894 Michigan team that finished with a 9–1–1 record and recorded the school's first victory against one of the Eastern football powers with a 12–4 win over Cornell at the Detroit Athletic Club's field in Detroit. Baird played quarterback for the 1895 Michigan team that compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14. The sole loss of the 1895 season was a 4–0 setback against the Harvard Crimson, then one of the three great football powers. Michigan finished the season with a 12–0 win over Western rival, Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons. Undefeated against Western opponents, the 1895 Wolverines laid claim to the Western football championship. At the end of the 1895 season, one Chicago newspaper, the Daily Inter Ocean selected Baird as the substitute quarterback on its All-Western team. Baird studied civil engineering at Michigan and received his bachelor's degree in 1896. Baird's brother Charles A. Baird was the manager of the 1894 and 1895 football teams at Michigan and later became the university's first athletic director.