Ralph George "Fat" Waldsmith (August 7, 1892 – June 7, 1925) was a professional football player during the early years of 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 ...

. Waldsmith won an NFL championship with the

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 ...

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

. before that season, he played for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

in the American Professional Football Association, which was the run-up to the NFL.

Pre-NFL era

Prior to playing the NFL, Waldsmith played 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 ...

with the

Akron Indians The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter me ...

in 1914, alongside

Knute Rockne Knut ( Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is use ...

. He played in every game that season. In 1916 and 1917, Ralph won the Ohio League championship with the Canton Bulldogs. In 1919 Waldsmith was the coach and co-owner of the Akron Indians. That year, he signed

Fritz Pollard Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 – May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard and Bobby Marshall were th ...

to play for Akron ao that the team could compete against the

Massillon Tigers The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the " Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championshi ...

and Canton.

Akron Zips Hall of Fame

In 1978, Waldsmith was inducted into the University of Akron's Varsity “A” Sports Hall of Fame.http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10800&ATCLID=319403

References

* * * * McClellan, Keith (1998). ''The Sunday Game: At the Dawn of Professional Football''. Akron, OH: Akron University Press. . * Carroll, John M. (1999). ''Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement''. University of Illinois Press. .

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldsmith, Ralph 1892 births 1925 deaths American football centers American football guards Akron Zips football players Akron Indians (Ohio League) players Akron Indians coaches Canton Bulldogs players Canton Bulldogs (Ohio League) players Cleveland Indians (NFL) players Players of American football from Akron, Ohio