Archibald Robinson Hoxton 1895
A.R. Hoxton, the first of the Hoxtons to attend Episcopal as a student, was one of the School's first all-around athletes. Known for his quickness, "Flick" was one of the first football players of his time to utilize that quickness as a diversionary tactic, opting away from sheer brute force as his modus operandi. Fielding punts, he would move some ten yards away from the spot where the ball was headed, allowing the defenders to converge upon him. As they drew close, he would dart to the spot where the ball was actually going to fall, field the ball, and race up the field, leaving his opponents behind to tackle each other.
Playing in the days when EHS athletic options were limited, he excelled not only in football, but also in baseball. He was the first president of the EHS Athletic Association, and still had time to serve as Head Monitor for his last two sessions on the Hill.
Starring in athletics at the University of Virginia, he served as head coach of both football and baseball while pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Upon his graduation from Virginia, he returned to Episcopal in 1901 and served as teacher, coach, and later headmaster from 1913 to 1947. He died in 1951 in Alexandria, and his obituary in the Alexandria Gazette read in part: "…he guided the school through two major wars and a depression . . . received Master's degrees from both Princeton and Harvard." A citation from Harvard called him the "dean of the schoolmasters of the South."
