Andrew James "Swede" Oberlander (February 17, 1905 – January 1, 1968) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. He was an All-American halfback for

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

's Indians undefeated and national championship football team in

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

. Oberlander was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1954.

Dartmouth College

Oberlander was converted to halfback from the tackle position, and had a "terrific straight arm". In 1925, Oberlander passed for 14 touchdowns and ran for 12. Dartmouth defeated Harvard 32–9, its best victory to date over the Crimson. In a 62–13 victory over

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...

, Oberlander had 477 yards in total offense, including six touchdown passes, a Dartmouth record which still stands. He was responsible for some 500 yards of total offense. Cornell coach

Gil Dobie Robert Gilmour "Gloomy Gil" Dobie (January 21, 1878 – December 23, 1948) was an American football player and coach. Over a period of 33 years, he served as the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State ...

responded "We won the game 13–0, passing is not football." The season closed with a 33–7 victory over defending Big Ten champion

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Oberlander threw three touchdowns.

Coaching career

Oberlander was an assistant coach at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

from 1926 to 1929 and head coach at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

from 1930 to 1933. While at Wesleyan, he commuted to

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

and received his MD from

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

World War II

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, as a Lt. Commander in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

, he was chief medical officer aboard the USS ''Samaritan'' (AH-10), in the Pacific Fleet. When the war ended, many U.S. troops remained in the Far East awaiting transportation back to the States. Oberlander was head coach of the Navy All-Stars team that beat the Army team 12–0 in the

China Bowl China Bowl may refer to: * China Bowl (NFL), a proposed football game by the National Football League * China Bowl (CAFL), the championship football game for the China Arena Football League * China Bowl (1945), a game between US Army and Navy play ...

on November 30, 1945, in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Insurance

Later, Oberlander served as Medical Director for National Life Insurance Company of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

and

Prudential Insurance Company Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers th ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberlander, Andy 1905 births 1968 deaths American football halfbacks Dartmouth Big Green football players Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Wesleyan Cardinals football coaches All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees United States Navy personnel of World War II Yale School of Medicine alumni Prudential Financial people American people of Swedish descent United States Navy Medical Corps officers Sportspeople from Chelsea, Massachusetts