Willis Allen "Bill" Glassgow (April 21, 1907 – November 1, 1959) graduated from Shenandoah Iowa high school.

[1] He was the son of Franklin and Nellie (Williams) Glassgow and lived on a farm west of Wheeling for the first ten years of his life.

"[4] At 5 feet, 8 inches, and 175 pounds, Glassgow concluded he would see more playing time elsewhere and transferred to the University of Iowa.

After sitting out the 1926 season following his transfer, Glassgow played three years each for Iowa's football and baseball teams.

He was the starting shortstop and leading hitter of the 1927 Iowa baseball team that tied for the Big Ten Conference championship.

Iowa coach Burt Ingwersen later said of Glassgow: I think Bill's greatest attribute as a ball carrier was the fact that you could never run him out of bounds.

[4]As a sophomore in 1927, Glassgow ran for three touchdowns and kicked two extra points in the second quarter of his first football game for the Hawkeyes, a 32–6 win over Monmouth College.

[4] The 1928 team lost the Big Ten Conference championship after a 10–7 loss to Michigan, a game in which Iowa's only touchdown came on a 55-yard run by Glasgow.

[4] Glassgow also gained acclaim in 1928 for his punting performance in Iowa's 7–6 win over a Minnesota team featuring Bronko Nagurski.

His off-tackle dashes and ability in an open field are supplemented by his accomplishments as a place kicker, punter, and forward passer.

[2]As a senior in 1929, Glassgow gained further acclaim as the captain of a football team that permitted its opponents to score only 28 points all season.

After an investigation revealed a slush fund used to pay football players, Iowa was banned from the Big Ten Conference.

Following a 7–0 loss to Purdue, sports writer Irving Vaughn praised Glassgow in the Chicago Tribune: If Iowa needs any consolation for its failure to create more havoc in the Big Ten circle from which it is to be banished, it can find it quite easily.

[15]At the conclusion of the 1929 college football season, Glassgow was selected as a first-team All-American by Grantland Rice for Collier's Weekly,[16] the Newspaper Editors Association (based on a poll of 100 coaches and football writers),[17] The New York Sun,[18][19] and sports writer Lawrence Perry.

[20] He was also named the outstanding back in the country by The New York Sun and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference.

He scored one of the East's touchdowns in a 19–7 win but also suffered a shoulder injury in the Shrine Game that hampered his professional baseball career.

[5] In January 1930, Branch Rickey signed Glassgow to a contract to play professional baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Glassgow was in his final year of law school at the time and sought the extra remuneration to pay his expenses.