September 10, 1902 - Jim Crowley was a halfback that played for the University of Notre Dame. Jim was born in Chicago and early in life his family moved to Green Bay Wisconsin per the National Football Foundation. Crowley attended the town's East High School where he played football and basketball. During the 1919 East football season Jim's head coach was the legendary Curly Lambeau. After high school Jim was accepted into the University of Notre Dame where he joined the football program. ND Head Coach Knute Rockne tabbed Crowley with the "Sleepy Jim" nickname in a quote he gave to an aide; "Except for a nimble wit, Crowley shows me nothing." which was Rockne's 1922 first impression perception of the young Crowley who had a very relaxed and smooth motion of performing his drills in practice. When it was game time though, this smooth gait was decisive and direct and gave opposing defenses fits. It didn't take long for Coach Rockne to change his mind on Jim Crowley's football demeanor though as he described the player s "the nerviest back I've ever known." This reference most likely came from the way Sleepy Jim would throw his body at rushing defenders. Crowley is most notably remembered as one of the Four Horseman of Notre Dame. Fighting Irish teams of 1922 through 1924. The quartet were labeled with the notorious nickname by Rockne's publicist, George Strickler and then recorded eloquently in print by New York Herald-Tribune writer Grantland Rice. The legend of the Horsemen arose out of Strickler walking into a conversation in the press box during halftime of the October 18, 1924 Irish game against the Army Black Knights. Grantland Rice was spearheading a chat amongst the other big time news writers about the dominance that the Irish offense was demonstrating aganst Army. George Strickler interjected a reference from a recent Rudolph Valentino movie he recently had watched when he stated, "Yeah just like the Four Horsemen!" The comment was somehwat ignored by the men of the press but as the second half wore on and the relentless rapid succession of plays that kept Army's defense off balance and the images of the horsemen, mentioned by Strickler resonated in Grantland Rice's mind. Rice sat at his typewriter after the 13-7 Notre Dame victory and wrote what may be one of the most famous lines ever in college football jounalism;
"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."
This was of course a Biblical reference to the four horsemen of the apaocalypse. The monicker stuck with the quartet and is still well remembered to this day. The football writers and broadcasters composed a All-Time Notre Dame team in 1962 and Jim Crowley was the only one, amongst the Four Horsemen to make it on this squad. The College Football Hall of Fame inducted him into their collection of legends in 1966. Jim tried his hand at professional football but only played 3 NFL games total in stints with the Green Bay Packers and the Providence Steam Rollers. In 1925 the Waterbury Blues signed two of the Horseman, Crowley and Stuhldreher, against a team from Adams, Massachusetts. Sleepy Jim scored 3 TD's in the 34-0 romp over Adams, collected his check after the game and left the team to go to his other job of coaching at the University of Georgia. Crowley went on to coach at Michigan State for four years and then was lured into taking over the powerful Fordham University program. His collegeiate coaching record was an very respectable 86-23-11. As the Head of the 1939 Fordham team, he coached in the very first televised football game. JIm served in the Navy during World War II and there coached a military team, the North Carolina Pre-Flight School Cloudbusters. He later tried his hand in coaching the professional ranks as he was once the Commissioner of the All-America Football Conference and became part owner and coach of the league's worst team, the Chicago Rockets. Needless to say Crowley's success in the college ranks didn't transfer to the AAFC as his Rocket team finished with a 1-13 record in 1947, prompting him to relinquish his roles with the team before the 1948 season. Crowley then moved to Pennsylvania and held a few jobs before landing the postion of Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission for 9 years.
September 10, 1939 - Buck Buchanan was a defensive tackle from Grambling State University. He was a big body for the day weighing in at 267 pounds but Buck was very agile for his size as he was clocked with a 4.9 second time in the 40 yard dash and 10.2 seconds in the 100 yard dash. Buck went onto play in the AFL and NFL as part of the defensive line of the Kansas City Chiefs. During the 1967 season the 6' 7" defender knocked down 16 pass attempts by opposing quarterbacks. He was a member of the Super Bowl IV winning Kansas City team. For his dominant play Mr Buchanan was selected to both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
September 10, 1945 - Marlin Briscoe was a former University of Nebraska at Omaha quarterback. He was nickmnamed "the Magician" as he often performed some amazing feats on the gridiron. The Magician had a career college record of 27-11 and led his Nebrask teams to 3 conference titles and held 22 school records when he left Nebraska. Briscoe became the first African-American starting quarterback in American Professional football when he took over the offensive signal calling for the Denver Broncos in the 1968 season. He played in the league for 9 seasons. The College Football Hall of Fame selected him into their entry class of 2016.
Special thanks to the Pro Football Reference website.
