Walter Herbert "Eckie" Eckersall (June 17, 1883 – March 24, 1930) was an American college football player, official, and sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune.

Eckersall was selected as the quarterback for Walter Camp's "All-Time All-America Team" honoring the greatest college football players during the sport's formative years.

His talent emerged at Hyde Park High School, where he dashed 100 yards (91 m) in 10.0 seconds, an Illinois record for 25 years, and excelled on the football field.

In 1902, he quarterbacked Hyde Park to an undefeated season and then led the squad to a 105–0 trouncing of Brooklyn Polytechnic at Marshall Field on December 5 to claim the unofficial national high school football championship.

Stagg resorted to chicanery, snatching Eckersall off a train platform to keep him from attending a recruitment rendezvous arranged by Michigan coaches in Ann Arbor in 1903.

Eckersall's booming punt carried into the end zone where it was caught by Michigan's William Dennison Clark who attempted to run the ball out.

He advanced the ball forward to the one-yard line, but was hit hard by Art Badenoch and then was brought back inside his own end zone by Mark Catlin for a two-point safety.

Highly regarded as an authority on football, he selected the Chicago Tribune's all star team; his "All Western" eleven carried prestige.

In March 1930, Eckersall was hospitalized for illnesses associated with his hard living, Stagg came to his bedside with the firm advice to "turn over a new leaf."