John Chalmers Tschappat, Jr. (June 22, 1896 – February 6, 1958), sometimes listed as John Franklin Tschappat, 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 wit ...

player. He played at the

tackle Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking ...

position for the

Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triang ...

of the

American Professional Football Association 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 maj ...

(later renamed 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 ma ...

) during the

1921 APFA season The 1921 APFA season was the second season of the American Professional Football Association, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922. At the league meeting in Akron, Ohio on April 30 prior to the season, the Association was reo ...

, the second regular season of the National Football League. Tschappat was born in

Bellaire, Ohio Bellaire is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and Wheeling is across the Ohio to the east. The population was 4,278 at the 2010 census, having had its peak in ...

in 1896 and later attended Bellaire High School. His father, John Tschappat, Sr., was an Ohio native who was employed as a boiler maker. Tschappat played college football at

West Virginia Wesleyan College West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist ...

in 1916. In 1918,

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 syste ...

's ''Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide'' named Tschappat to its All-West Virginia eleven. Tschappat also studied chemistry as a special student 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 pu ...

in 1917. During the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

era, he served in the United States Army Medical Department from June 1918 to March 1919 and was stationed at the Medical Detachment, Infirmary Convalescent Center, Camp Hancock, Georgia.Application for Headstone for John Tschappat, born June 22, 1896, died February 26, 1958. National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Applications for Headstones for U.S. military veterans, 1925-1941; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A1, 2110-C; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General; Record Group Number: 92. Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 atabase on-line He became a sergeant. After his discharge from the military, Tschappat returned to Ohio. In the fall of 1919, in the early days of professional football in the

Ohio League The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...

, he served as the line coach for Bellaire Athletic Association team during the 1919 season. In the fall of 1921, he played at the tackle position for the 1921 Dayton Triangles of the

during the

, the second regular season of the NFL. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Bellaire, Ohio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tschappat, Chalmers 1896 births 1958 deaths Players of American football from Ohio American football tackles Burials in Ohio West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats football players Dayton Triangles players People from Bellaire, Ohio United States Army non-commissioned officers