May 28

A graduation hits a Texas High School Football team hard and we celebrate some Hall of Fame birthdays with the player profiles of Jim Thorpe and a World Series hero among other great legends of the game. We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries as well as the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches or anyone else in our great game and many more  Legendary stories of the Gridiron.

May 28, 1971 Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the Mexia Daily News in Mexia, Texas when they had a headline on May 28, 1971 that read:

 Football Team is losing 22 to Graduation

The Mexia High School Black Cats football team of the 1970 season started all seniors. It is almost unheard of in college or high school to lose your entire starting team to graduation in one year. The group played their last game together on November 30, 1970 in Athens, Texas. 

May 28, 1887 - Prague Indian Territory, Oklahoma - Jim Thorpe was an NFL player and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and Gold Medalist Olympian. He is also ensrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. What made all of these accomplishments even more impressive was the Thorpe was also breaking race barriers to do so as he was a Native American. Born on a reservation in Prague, Oklahoma he ended up playing football for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania under legendary Coach Pop Warner. Thorpe not only won the pentathalon and the decathalon in the 1912 Olympic games for the US and played football, but he was also successful at playing baseball and basketball as well. He was also the only Olympic athlete to ever participate in 17 Olympic events! As a pro football player Jim played for the Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents and the New York Giants. Our friend and partner on the Sports History Network, Os Davis has a great conversation about Jim Thorpe on the very first Truly the GOATs podcast that you can easliy get to by clicking here. Also The Football History Dude, Arnie Chapman has a two parter on Thorpe that you can find here on SHN.

May 28, 1948 - Perth Amboy, New Jersey - Bruce Taylor who played for Boston University as a cornerback from 1967 to 1969 arrived into this life. The FootballFoundation.org claims that in the season of 1969 the Terriers went 9-1 and Taylor played defensive back and punt returner. He scored four times on punt returns of 100, 72, 64, and 56 yards. He made six touchdowns all told and led his team in scoring with 36 points. He returned 26 punts for 527 yards, an average of 20.3 per return. The National Football Foundation selected Bruce Taylor for entrance into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. Bruce’s athletic talent had him drafted by the MLB’s Baltimore Orioles but instead he stuck to football and played pro ball with the San Francisco 49ers for 8 seasons and in 1970 was named Rookie of the Year by the Sporting News and by United Press International.  

May 28, 1949 - Lancaster, Ohio - Rex Kern was the quarterback of the Ohio State from 1968 to 1970. The NFF’s bio says Kern ran the Buckeye offense with such command and confidence that he often waved off incoming substitutes with plays sent in by Coach Woody Hayes, as he felt they stifled the momentum he and the offense were developing. On joining the varsity in 1968, Kern and 11 other sophomore starters (freshman were not eligible) came out of nowhere to capture the Big Ten crown and the National Championship by defeating Southern California the number two-ranked, defending National Champion in the Rose Bowl. Kern was the game MVP throwing two fourth quarter touchdown passes The Buckeye win streak reached 22 games by the end of the following season as experts were comparing Ohio State to some of the greatest teams in history. A season ending loss to rival Michigan denied the Buckeyes another national title. That year he placed third in the Heisman voting. With a number of great signal callers playing that year, All-America selectors were determined to get Kern on the first team, so he was named as a running back, a position he did not play.  Rex Kern was honored with induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007 after the National Football Foundation tabulated their votes. In the NFL he played as a defensive back for the Baltimore Colts and the Buffalo Bills.

May 28, 1957 - Pontiac, Michigan - Kirk Gibson, yes the hero for the LA Dodgers in the 1984 World Series is on our list for football legends. Mr. Gibson, unbeknownst to many was a stud college football player for the Michigan State University Spartans. The National Football Foundation  says Gibson still to this day has the record for the highest yards per catch at Michigan State with 21.0 yards on average. He played wide receiver and was rewarded for his football accomplishments in 2017 by being elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. His career as the university’s record-holder for career receptions (112), touchdown receptions (24) and receiving yards (2,347), with the latter two still ranking in the top five to help Kirk earn the status of First Team All-American as a senior in 1978.

May 28, 1963- Eugene Robinson was a 3 time Pro Bowl  and All Pro first team NFL Free Safety that played for the Seahawks, Packers, Falcons and Panthers. He earned a Super Bowl Ring with the Packers in SB XXXI. He attended Colgate University as a collegian. After he hung up his cletes Mr Robinson spent 17 years in the broadcast booth as an analyst for the Carolina Panthers Radio team. He left the booth to become a co-host on a local Charlotte Morning TV show.

See all the football players born on May 28th at Pro Football Reference

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

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by Harris and Ewing Photographers circa 1915 and is titled " Football Player, Jim Thorpe ."