Benjamin Aaron Roderick (May 11, 1899 – November 30, 1974) was a professional

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

player during the early years of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) with the

Buffalo All-Americans Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under multiple names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s. The early NFL-era franchise was variously called the Buffalo All-Stars fr ...

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Lea ...

and

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

. Roderick won an NFL championship with the Canton Bulldogs in 1923. He also played for Cleveland Tigers, while playing in the American Professional Football Association, the organization that later became the NFL.

College football

In 1922, Roderick transferred from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

. His teammate at Columbia, Sam Dana, who became the longest surviving NFL alumnus in 2003, referred to Roderick as "a sweetheart of a player". Dana later adopted Roderick's style of running.

Korean War

Roderick was one of 226 NFL personnel who served in the military during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roderick, Ben 1899 births 1974 deaths Boston College Eagles football players Buffalo Bisons (NFL) players Buffalo All-Americans players Canton Bulldogs players Cleveland Tigers (NFL) players Columbia Lions football players College of Wooster alumni Ohio Northern Polar Bears football coaches American military personnel of the Korean War People from Navarre, Ohio Players of American football from Stark County, Ohio