July 12

In this special July 12 edition, we discuss early football teams with events on July 12, including the Spartans, Indians, Tigers, and Dodgers. We also remember when the Dutchman was signed, and Hec Cowan was born. We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia.

This daily football history segment features the great events, franchise formation anniversaries, and the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches, or anyone else in our great game, as well as many more legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by the Corner Bookstore circa 1913 and is titled " Cornell Lineup ."

• July 12, 1930 - Brooklyn Dodgers franchise is established in the NFL when according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame website Brooklyn businessman, John Dwyer purchased the league’s Dayton Triangles franchise and moved it to New York. 
• July 12, 1931 - Cleveland Indians franchise forms after the Cleveland Tigers franchise changed their name and then subsequently folded after the 1921 season.
• July 12, 1930 - Portsmouth Spartans/Detroit Lions franchise forms. The Spartans were officially granted a franchise at this July 12, 1930 league meeting. The teams had its ups and downs in their brief span on the NFL circuit. Twice they were faced with controversy, preventing them from having a chance to claim the Championship Title of the League. We get more in detail on these stories and more about the Portsmouth franchise in our Early Pro Teams series special on the Spartans. On June 30, 1934 the Portsmouth franchise was sold and moved to Detroit where they have resided ever since.
• July 12, 1949 - The LA Rams sign Quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to a contract.
• July 12, 1960 - Inventor D.H. Rayburn is awarded the Football Safety Helmet with Face Guard US Patent 2944263.

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• July 12, 1863 - Hobart, New York - Hector William "Hec" Cowan is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame as possibly the member of any of the football hall of fames with the earliest birth date. Think about it, he was born while the Civil War was still in the news. Hec was the captain of the Princeton squad in the late 1880's and in 1889 was selected by Caspar Whitney to the very first All-American Team as a Tackle per the FootballFoundation.org. Yale star Pudge Heffelfinger claimed that Cowan was one of the strongest opponents that he ever played against per the National Football Foundation. Heffelfinger was quoted as saying, “ "He had the strongest shoulders and arms I've ever been up against and his stubby legs drove like pistons when he carried the ball. Hector could carry a couple of tacklers on his back, yet he was plenty fast in the open." Mr. Cowan went on to coach after graduation at North Carolina and Kansas and had success in these duties as well. Eventually Hec became a Presbyterian Minister while in Missouri. 
• July 12, 1878 - Henrico County, Virginia - The guard from the University of Pennsylvania for the 1902 to 1905 seasons, Bob Torrey was born. In his bio on the NFF’s website it is brought up that after the 1905 Penn Swarthmore game President Teddy Roosevelt must have gasped at the photograph that was printed in the newspaper. The photo was that of a beat up and battered face of Swarthmore guard Robert "Tiny" Maxwell.  The President was incensed as Football violence had gone far enough. Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport and his ultimatum was answered by sweeping rule changes to the game. Maxwell's facial reconstruction was the result of play in an 11-4 Swarthmore loss to the powerful Penn Quakers. A game that the National Football Foundation states changed the course of football history. Robert Torrey, the Penn captain, was the center playing opposite Maxwell that day. Now though he did play a part in it, Torrey can not be totally blamed for Maxwell's condition,  as it was no secret that the Penn strategy that day was for the line to double and triple-team Maxwell the key to a Quaker victory to finish the season unbeaten. The strategy worked and Penn did claim an undefeated record in 1905, winning 12 as well as a single tie 6-6 game with Lafayette. A year earlier when the Quakers sported a 12-0-0 record, Swarthmore had been the only team to score against them. For certain, the Penn teams in those early years at the turn of the 20th Century were powerhouses in the rough and tumble days of gridiron play. Torrey was among the best of the nation's linemen and won All-America honors following the 1905 season. The National Football Foundation selected Bill Torrey for entrance into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.  
• July 12, 1920 - McKinney, Texas - Glenn Dobbs is a football player that was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980 as a halfback out of the University of Tulsa. Dobbs' career with the Golden Hurricane spanned from 1940 through the 1942 season according to the National Football Foundation. Glenn was a first team All-America selection as a senior as he led the nation with a .626 completion rate during that 1942 campaign. Opposing coach Jimmy Phelan called Dobbs football's first "Quad" back - able to pass, punt, run with the ball and defend against the opposition. He went on to play professionally in the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) with the Brooklyn Dodgers football team and he was the MVP of that League in 1946. An injury forced him to sit out the 1950 season but he returned to the field in a league that was the predecessor of the CFL called the Western Improvincial Football Union (WIFU) before his full retirement from playing. Dobbs returned to Tulsa to become the University's Head Coach in the 1960's.  
• July 12, 1939 - Carrollton, Ohio - Bill Cooper is a College Football of Fame member that played for Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio from 1957 to 1960. Cooper was a hard nosed put your head down and run you over type of runner. In fact this rushing style earned Bill the nickname of  "Cannonball" Cooper. According to the National Football Foundation as a junior, Cannonball rushed for 1,191 yards and 15 touchdowns. In his senior year he rushed for 1,102 yards and 23 touchdowns on 158 carries. Cannonball finished his collegiate career with 3,651 yards, a 5.5-yards-per-carry average, and 364 points.  The NFF says that Cooper was named as a first team All-America in 1960 after leading the Fighting Muskies to a 9-0 season. The prized fullback played his way into the NFL on the San Francisco 49ers squad.

For more stats on football people born on July 12th check out Pro Football Reference.

See something that happened on this date that we missed? Please let us know via email at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com.