Akron Football History

[UAZipster0305]

A bit is made about Akron's football history with regard to John Heisman as a former coach. However, I am still amazed by how relatively under-celebrated this relationship is and how there is virtually no awareness about the deeper and more distant history of Akron sports and the University in general.

 

I am currently reading Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss, which goes through some early college and professional football history. One thing that really stands out is who the Carlisle Indians opponents around the turn of the last century were. Their opponents included Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, West Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Army, Navy, Lehigh, Lafayette, and all the Ivy League schools. There was not a single reference to Akron or another MAC-level team. So, Akron football has literally been trying to play catch up with the big boys for 125 years. We are not consistently at the level of the Big Ten, historically or now, and there is nothing wrong with that. Anyone expecting otherwise is ignoring history and not being realistic about the current or future. That is not to say we should accept mediocrity or worse in the MAC.

 

Instead, we should be embracing the history we do have. Specifically, it is a mystery to me as to how I did not previously know that the owner of the first NFL Champion, the 1920 Akron Pros, was an Akron alum and former Akron football player, Art Ranney. He was also the first secretary and treasurer of the league and took notes of the league's founding meeting in Canton on Akron Pros stationary! A co-owner, Frank Nied was also an Akron alum and NFL co-founder.

 

By my research, there are only four universities that can lay claim to having alums as founders of the NFL: Akron (Ranney and Nied), Dayton (Carl Storck), Notre Dame (Stan Cofall), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (George Halas). Hence, Akron is the only university with multiple alums as founders of the NFL. Not Kent, Not Ohio State, not Pittsburgh, not Penn State, not West Virginia, not Michigan, AKRON! How is this not celebrated by the University, especially when the alumni and football program are starving for something to favorably change focus and momentum?!

 

It makes me wonder, how many other alumni accomplishments are unknown or not publicized (and not just with regard to athletics)? How many Rhodes and Goldwater scholars have we had?

 

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/carlisle/head-to-head.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Ranney

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Nied

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by UAZipster0305

[Blue & Gold]

Great stuff, brother @UAZipster0305!  I didn't know any of that.

Are you saying Jim Thorpe's traveling football team also played Buchtel College?  I was a little fuzzy at what you were getting at in your second paragraph.

 

Great stuff about the NFL, Akron Pros, and UA alumnus Art Ranney!  I didn't know any of that!

[UAZipster0305]

Just now, Blue & Gold said:

Great stuff, brother @UAZipster0305!  I didn't know any of that.

Are you saying Jim Thorpe's traveling football team also played Buchtel College?  I was a little fuzzy at what you were getting at in your second paragraph.

 

No, I was making the point that Thorpe's "college" team did not play Buchtel/Akron, implying we were not considered a major football program then either, but that so many of the schools we are looking up to now were already established. We have been trying to play catch-up to the big boys since the early days of college football.

[Blue & Gold]

2 minutes ago, UAZipster0305 said:

 

No, I was making the point that Thorpe's "college" team did not play Buchtel/Akron, implying we were not considered a major football program then either, but that so many of the schools we are looking up to now were already established. We have been trying to play catch-up to the big boys since the early days of college football.

💯🎯 (I'm out of reactions... per usual.)

[Reslife4Life]

18 hours ago, UAZipster0305 said:

 

No, I was making the point that Thorpe's "college" team did not play Buchtel/Akron, implying we were not considered a major football program then either, but that so many of the schools we are looking up to now were already established. We have been trying to play catch-up to the big boys since the early days of college football.

We will always have 1894

[GP1]

Since we are talking history..,.....

 

Quantum physics says that for every decision made in a universe, there are an unlimited number of outcomes. That means the following. 

 

Somewhere out there is a universe where hiring Faust resulted in a success program.  Jim Dennison knew how to run an athletic department, Lee Owens continued on as head coach, the Zips never win a MAC Championship with JD, the Zips are full of only players from Ohio coached by Jim Grobe hired by President Jim Tressel, Coach I won six games in three years and Arth has a successful career as an underwear model like Jim Palmer. But, here we are. 

 

How's that for another universe?

Edited November 14, 2023 by GP1

[Captain Kangaroo]

I sense Terry Pluto’s next book - “Akron Zips Football and the Curse of Fritz Pollard”