Theodore Nesser Jr. (April 5, 1883 – June 7, 1941) was a 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-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

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 p ...

" and the early

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). During his professional football career, he played for the

Columbus Panhandles The Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team based in Columbus, Ohio. The club was founded in 1901 by workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were a part of the Ohio League from 1904 before foldi ...

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 ...

, Akron Indians,

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 ...

and

Shelby Blues The Shelby Blues were an American football team based in Shelby, Ohio. The team played in the Ohio League from 1900 to 1919. In 1920, when the Ohio League became the APFA (now known as the National Football League), the Blues did not join but con ...

. He was also a member of the Nesser Brothers, a group consisting of seven brothers who made-up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s. Ted was the first Nesser to make money at football, playing for Massillon's state championship teams in 1904, 1905 and 1906. Ted was considered the toughest of the Nesser brothers. In 1906, he reputedly ended the career of

Willie Heston William Martin Heston (September 9, 1878 – September 9, 1963) was an American football player and coach. He played halfback at San Jose State University and the University of Michigan. Heston was the head football coach for Drake Universit ...

, a former Michigan All-American, with a hard tackle in a Massillon Tigers-Canton Bulldogs game. In 1908, Ted reputedly stayed for a game with two broken bones protruding from an arm, just because he thought that his brothers needed him. Nesser was also reported to have had broken his nose at least eight times. He was also considered a football genius and is credited with originating several plays including the triple pass, the criss-cross and the short kickoff. These plays became popular in the college game of that day. None of the Nesser brothers attended college. However, in 1909,

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

coach Charley Moran, fearing a loss to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, offered to pay Ted for his help. Even though Ted had never finished high school, he wore a freshman beanie on campus and suited up for the game. The Aggies never trailed, so Ted never got in, but Moran paid him $200 afterward for his trouble. Ted's son Charlie also played briefly for the Panhandles in 1921. This is marked as the only father-son combination to play together in NFL history. In 2015, the Professional Football Researchers Association named Nesser to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2015.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nesser, Ted 1883 births Akron Indians (Ohio League) players Canton Professionals players Columbus Panhandles (Ohio League) players Columbus Panhandles coaches Columbus Panhandles players Massillon Tigers players Shelby Blues players Players of American football from Ohio 1941 deaths Nesser family (American football) American people of German descent