John Wesley "Dutch" Kitzmiller (November 25, 1904 – April 26, 1986) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a fullback for the

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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). He played

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 ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

College career

A halfback from

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, he played on the 1925 Harrisburg Technical High School team and scored 21 points in their championship game. Kitzmiller had planned to attend the United States Military Academy and play for coach John McEwan's

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. But, just as he was about to enroll, McEwan was hired as the coach of the University of Oregon Ducks and Kitzmiller followed him to Oregon. At Oregon, Kitzmiller led the team to national prominence, with the team winning 23 of 30 games, including two losses suffered after Kitzmiller broke his leg in the 1929

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. In addition to halfback, Kitzmiller also played

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

and

placekicker In gridiron football, the placekicker (PK), or simply kicker (K), is the player responsible for attempts at scoring Field goal (football), field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist ...

, and twice earned all-

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a collegiate athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (includin ...

honors. His nickname "The Flying Dutchman" was from his spectacular tackles made though he weighed just .

After college

Kitzmiller played one season as a fullback with the

in 1931, then returned to Oregon as an assistant coach from 1932 to 1935. He served in the Army Air Force in

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during

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, returning to Oregon's Willamette Valley after the war to establish a manufacturing company. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969, the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. Kitzmiller died in Oregon in 1986.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitzmiller, Johnny 1904 births 1986 deaths American football fullbacks American football halfbacks New York Giants players Oregon Ducks football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Dallas, Oregon Players of American football from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania