Merle Allison Hapes (May 19, 1919July 18, 1994) 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 in 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) and the

Interprovincial Rugby Football Union The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. T ...

. He played two seasons for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

(1942, 1946), in between which he served in the Army Air Force during World War II, and then played five seasons for the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

and their predecessor, winning the 1953 Grey Cup. Hapes played fullback with the University of Mississippi from 1939 to 1941 and was then drafted in the 1st Round of the NFL draft by the New York Giants. He was the starting fullback for the Giants in 1941 and then served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946. Upon returning from the war, he returned to the Giants. He and quarterback

Frank Filchock Frank Joseph Filchock (October 8, 1916 – June 20, 1994) was an American professional football player and coach. As a consequence of a famous scandal regarding the 1946 NFL Championship Game, he was suspended by the National Football Leag ...

were involved in a gambling scandal in 1946 in which they allegedly took bribes to fix the

1946 NFL Championship Game The 1946 NFL Championship Game was the 14th annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), played December 15 at the Polo Grounds in New York City, with a record-breaking attendance of The game matched the New York Giants ( ...

. Since the betting scandal meant he was indefinitely suspended from playing professional football in the United States, he went to Canada to play in the

Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883, and in 1903 it became the first major competition to ado ...

. Hapes played one season for the

Hamilton Tigers The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario, that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1920 to 1925. The Tigers were formed by the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton interest ...

in 1949. The Tigers merged with the crosstown rival

Hamilton Wildcats The Hamilton Wildcats were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) from 1941 to 1947, and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1948 to 1949. The team was formed ...

to become the

in 1950 with the merged team taking the Wildcats' place in the

, a forerunner of the modern

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

. However, Hapes was injured for the entire season. For the next two seasons he was an assistant coach with the Tiger-Cats, but returned to play as a backup for two final seasons, winning the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

with Hamilton in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

. Hapes returned to the States and worked in the Civil Service and the Department of Defence until 1982. In 1993 Hapes was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame of Mississippi. Hapes died on July 18, 1994.

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* 1919 births 1994 deaths American football fullbacks Players of Canadian football from California Hamilton Tigers football players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players New York Giants players Ole Miss Rebels football players Ontario Rugby Football Union players Sportspeople from Garden Grove, California Players of American football from Orange County, California 20th-century American sportsmen {{runningback-1910s-stub