The Dolly Gray impostor was an unknown

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 who played under the alias of Jack "Dolly" Gray, an

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

from

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 ...

in 1922. He was rumored to be an All-American honoree in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

; however, the only known player named Gray to be awarded consensus All-American honors at Princeton in 1922 was

Howdy Gray Howard Kramer "Howdy" Gray (August 28, 1901 – September 6, 1955) was a college football player and surgeon. Princeton Gray was a prominent end on the Princeton Tigers football team. 1922 On the national champion " Team of Destiny" in its ...

, who was also an end. Under the alias of Gray, the impostor played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

in 1923 for the St. Louis All-Stars and the Green Bay Packers. In 1923, the impostor approached

Ollie Kraehe Oliver Robert Kraehe (August 22, 1898 – December 19, 1966) was a professional football player for the Rock Island Independents in 1922. In 1923, he founded the St. Louis All Stars and served, not only as a player-coach, but as the team's manage ...

, the owner and

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of the NFL's St. Louis All-Stars. Kraehe signed him to the All-Stars where the impostor played in three games. After witnessing the poor quality of play in what he thought was Dolly Gray, an All-American football star at Princeton, Kraehe discovered that he was lied to and that the man claiming to be Dolly Gray was actually an impostor. Kraehe decided to pull the deception that had been pulled on him on another team. After a 6–0 loss to the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

, Kraehe released the impostor to

Curly Lambeau Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau (April 9, 1898 – June 1, 1965) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Lambeau, along with his friend and fellow Green Bay, Wisconsin native George Whitney Cal ...

and the Green Bay Packers in exchange for cash he desperately needed to keep his team operating. From Lambeau's perspective, it appeared that he had gained the best player on the All-Stars roster. Two weeks later, the Packers played the All-Stars at

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on th ...

. The game ended in a 3–0 Packers victory. After the game, Curly Lambeau cornered the St. Louis owner and questioned him about Dolly Gray. According to Lambeau, Gray played in just one game with the Packers and had played poorly. Then, after boarding the train for the team's game in St. Louis, he had mysteriously disappeared. Kraehe then admitted to Lambeau that the deal between the two clubs regarding Gray was a joke. He explained how the con man had deceived his way onto the All-Stars roster. Kraehe then thought that he would try to recycle the trick on Lambeau in good fun. Kraehe finally stated that it had always been his intention to give Lambeau back the money he spent on the impostor. The person's identity remains unknown.

References

St. Louis All-Stars players Green Bay Packers players National Football League controversies Unidentified people {{Amfoot-bio-stub

See also

References