James John Quill ( â March 8, 1918) was an American lawyer and college football player and coach. He was a graduate of both Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts and the Yale Law School. Quill's hit on Francis Burr in the 1905 HarvardâÂÂYale football game was a catalyst for major reforms in the game of college football. He served as the head football coach at in 1906, compiling a record of 8âÂÂ1.
In 1918, Quill was working as the clerk of the grand jury system in Hudson County, New Jersey. In early March of that year, he went to Battle Creek, Michigan to treat a kidney ailment. He died on March 8, 1918, in Battle Creek, at the age of 35.