[1] In 1900, he was selected as a consensus All-American while playing at the quarterback position for the undefeated Yale Bulldogs football team.
[1] During this time, Fincke reportedly "lost interest in industrial management and was troubled by capitalism's exploitation of the laboring class.
While enrolled at the seminary, became critical of the church's traditional role and its relationship to wealth and studied the works of Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden, who advocated the social gospel.
[1] In April 1917, Fincke's congregation voted to remove him as pastor after he delivered a pacifist sermon rejecting the belief that World War I, which the United States had recently joined, was a fight for liberty and democracy.
[1] The Labor Temple was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and offered social, religious and educational programs for the city's working class.
He led a fight for the free speech rights of striking steel workers and was briefly imprisoned on a charge of disturbing the peace.
He converted the main house into an experimental school and dormitory for teen-aged workers from the "needle trades" in New York City and farms in the lower Hudson Valley.
[2] Courses at the college included "The Literature of Revolt," "The History of Workers in America," and "Social and Economic Problems of Today."
Students at the college were not charged tuition, and the operating costs were funded in part by Fincke's personal wealth.