John Moore Van Cleve (September 26, 1871 – January 9, 1914) was an

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 and coach, and one of the first known professional players of the sport. After playing

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at Lehigh, he played five seasons for independent teams in or near

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and served in 1898 as player-coach for Pittsburgh College, later known as

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...

Professional football career

Van Cleve became one of the earliest known people paid to play football when he, Ollie Rafferty, and Peter Wright signed contracts with the

Allegheny Athletic Association The Allegheny Athletic Association was an athletic club that fielded the first ever professional American football player and later the first fully professional football team. The organization was founded in 1890 as a regional athletic club in ...

for $50 per game for the entire 1893 season. Only

Pudge Heffelfinger William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the greatest lineman of his time, and the first athlete to play American football p ...

and

Sport Donnelly Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

are known to have been professionals earlier. Van Cleve again played for Allegheny in 1894. During a game against the

Pittsburgh Athletic Club The Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC) was one of the earliest professional ice hockey teams. It was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from around 1895 until 1905 and again from 1907 to 1909. The team was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey ...

, Allegheny's

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

, A. S. Valentine, was thrown out of the game after coming to the aid of Van Cleve during a fight against Pittsburgh's

Joe Trees Joseph Clifton Trees (1870 - May 20, 1943) was a college football player at the University of Pittsburgh, the first athlete to receive an athletic subsidization at the school, and, possibly, an early professional football player. He later made mi ...

. After several appeals, Valentine left the field reportedly "crying like a baby" by the local media. During the 1895 season, Allegheny did not field a team after learning the club was under investigation by the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

for secretly paying its players. As a result, Van Cleve played for the upstart

Duquesne Country and Athletic Club The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club was a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1895 until 1900. The team was considered one of the best, if not the best, professional football teams in the country from 1898 until 1 ...

. Van Cleve played end for the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in 1896. He began the following season coaching and captaining a team from

Sewickley, Pennsylvania Sewickley is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, west northwest of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. It is a residential suburb of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 3,907 at the 2020 census. The Sewick ...

. The Pittsburgh ''Post'' reported that he would not rejoin the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in 1897, noting manager Bob Hamilton's statement that no paid player would be on the team; however, after a new manager took over for Hamilton during the season, Van Cleve was brought back.

College career

Prior to his professional career, Van Cleve played

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

, where he studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. On October 15, 1892, Van Cleve scored Lehigh's only

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

in a loss against the

Orange Athletic Club The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union fro ...

. He would play for Lehigh five days later during a 50–0 loss to the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in me ...

. Van Cleve also played

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

and was a member of Lehigh's 1893 national championship team. He was president of the school's "Starvation Club". Van Cleve served as the head football coach at Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost—later renamed

—in 1898. He also played for the team as an end. According to the Pittsburgh ''Post'', he was the lightest man on the team.}

Head coaching record

Notes

References

Additional sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Cleve, James 19th-century players of American football American football ends American football halfbacks Allegheny Athletic Association players Duquesne Country and Athletic Club players Duquesne Dukes football coaches Lehigh Mountain Hawks football players Pittsburgh Athletic Club (football) players People from South Amboy, New Jersey Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania 1871 births 1914 deaths