He was notable for being one of only three college football players in history to be named a four-time consensus All-American.

Frank Hinkey was born in Tonawanda, New York, he attended DeVeaux College and Phillips Andover.

He ran several businesses, including zinc smelting plants in Kansas and Illinois, and worked with fellow Yale teammate and All-American Frank Butterworth at a brokerage.

As a result, the Franklin backfield agreed to purposely run over the clean and sharply dressed Hinkey in jest, knocking him into the dirt.

Hinkey died from complications of tuberculosis on December 30, 1925, in Southern Pines, North Carolina, at age 55.