Thayer

Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 14th, 1863. Thayer, the son of a wealthy mill owner, was expected to go into the family business, and attended Harvard where he majored in philosophy and minored in humor. He wrote one of the annual Hasty Pudding Club plays and edited the Harvard Lampoon, Harvard's long-running humor magazine. While he was at Harvard Thayer became interested in baseball, and one of his best friends was Samuel Winslow, captain of Harvard’s baseball team. He also became friends with young William Randolph Hearst, who was the Lampoon’s business manager.