Joseph M. Duff Jr. (January 28, 1889 – October 10, 1918) was an All-American football player and coach who was killed in action during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Duff graduated from

Shady Side Academy } Shady Side Academy is an independent preparatory school located in the Borough of Fox Chapel (suburban Pittsburgh), and in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883 as an all-male night school in the Shadyside ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

before enrolling at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. He played guard for Princeton and was selected for

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

's All-American eleven in 1911. After graduating from Princeton, Duff became an assistant football coach at the school for the 1912 football season, assisting head coach Logan Cunningham. He served as the football coach at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in 1913 and 1914 and graduated from the

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, l ...

in 1915. He became a member of the Allegheny County Bar and went to work in the law firm of his brother

James H. Duff James Henderson Duff (January 21, 1883 – December 20, 1969) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1957. Previously he had served as the 34 ...

. In June 1917, he was in the Reserve Officers Training Camp in

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's e ...

, but was not given his commission due to a vision problem. Undeterred, he enlisted in the U.S. military in

and went to France as a private in the 313th Machine Gun Battalion, 80th Division. He was promoted to the rank of a lieutenant on September 30, 1918 and transferred to the 32nd Division to lead a machine gun company for the 125th Infantry. He was killed in action on Côte Dame Marie in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France on October 10, 1918.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, Joseph 1889 births 1918 deaths American football guards Princeton Tigers football coaches Princeton Tigers football players Pittsburgh Panthers football coaches All-American college football players American military personnel killed in World War I United States Army officers Shady Side Academy alumni University of Pittsburgh School of Law alumni People from Carnegie, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania