Southwest
Meet the American who was the first paid professional football player: Pudge Heffelfinger
The name of the first professional football player seems too perfect to be true.
Pudge Heffelfinger sounds like a mythical Midwestern gridiron god more than a living, breathing human being.
Heffelfinger’s fable is actually nonfiction fare. He was as real as the broken ribs he brutally delivered to a poor college kid while scrimmaging for kicks and giggles with the Yale varsity football team — at 49 years old.
This groundbreaking goliath of American sports was “unquestionably the most amazing football player I had ever known,” legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice gushed in the introduction to Heffelfinger’s own book.
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Heffelfinger was a Paul Bunyan-esque behemoth from Minnesota: tall, strapping, handsome and ferocious.
He starred for Yale from 1888 to 1891 and was the best player on some of the most dominant teams in college football history.
William Walter “Pudge” Heffelfinger was a strapping 6-foot-3, 205-pound lineman for the dominant Yale teams of 1888 to 1891. He became the first professional football player in 1892, when the Allegheny Athletic Association paid him $500 to play against the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club. (Courtesy Pro Football Hall of Fame)
A year after manhandling overmatched amateur college opponents, Heffelfinger reshaped America’s favorite sport forever.
He was paid $500 to take the field for the Allegheny Athletic Association in an 1892 contest against the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club.
“Pudge Heffelfinger was unquestionably the most amazing football player I had ever known.” — Grantland Rice
Heffelfinger entered history that day as the first known pro football player.
“Other players may have been paid to play before him — we don’t know for sure,” sports historian Ken Crippen, founder of The Football Learning Academy, told Fox News Digital.
“But Heffelfinger was the first for whom we have proof. After Heffelfinger … you were going to get the best players by throwing money at them.”
Heffelfinger proved to be one of the great ironmen in sports history. He played competitive football well into his 60s, after college as a barnstorming mercenary and in later years as a celebrity figure at charity games.
Grantland Rice, left, and Joe E. Brown, right, at the Santa Anita races. Rice is known for, among other things, crafting legendary phrases such as “The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.” He called Pudge Heffelfinger “the most amazing football player I had ever known.” (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Some sources put his last game at age 65, helping raise money for World War I veterans in 1932.
This super-human figure coached football, mentored players and championed football in media.
He helped popularize the game by publishing the annual “Heffelfinger’s Football Facts” from 1935 to 1950. It featured news, stats and schedules for both pro and college football.
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“It has been said by some historians that I will go down as ‘the greatest player of all time,’” Heffelfinger wrote in 1954, the year he died, in a biography called “This Was Football.”
“Deep in my heart I know it’s not true,” he added. “I can honestly claim, however, that I stuck with the game longer than anybody else did. On and off, I was an active football player 50 years.”
Born into new era of sports
William Walter “Pudge” Heffelfinger was born on Dec. 20, 1867, in Minneapolis to Christopher and Mary Ellen (Totton) Heffelfinger.
Yale University’s 1888 football team, coached by Walter Camp, went 13-0 and outscored its opposition 694-0. Pudge Heffelfinger (back row, center) towered over his teammates. (ullstein bild via Getty Images)
His father was a Civil War veteran wounded at Gettysburg, who then built a prominent shoemaking business in Minneapolis.
“Pudge wasn’t really pudgy,” Richard Goldstein wrote in “Ivy League Autumns,” published in 1996.
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“He picked up the nickname while playing sandlot football in Minneapolis at age 15.”
Heffelfinger was born into a nation on the cusp of the sport-as-entertainment explosion that followed the Civil War.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, played their first game in the spring of 1869. In the autumn of that same year, Rutgers and Princeton battled in the first college football game.
The Red Stocking Baseball Club of Cincinnati, Ohio, poses for a team photo in 1869, which was issued as a trade card. The Red Stocking, the first pro baseball team, and the first college football game, both emerged in 1869 — part of a post-Civil war obsession with sports as entertainment. (Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)
Heffelfinger starred in both baseball and football at Central High School in Minneapolis. It’s the same high school that produced music legend Prince — before closing in 1982.
His athletic exploits gave Heffelfinger the opportunity to play at Yale, the best college program in America, under coach and pigskin pioneer Walter Camp, widely proclaimed as the father of modern football.
“Heffelfinger was extremely quick, powerful, intelligent and fearless,” Goldstein wrote. “He pounced on opponents while playing defense and led the line charge on offense, springing from a semi-erect stance.”
The U.S. Postal Service issued a Walter Camp stamp in 2003 to pay tribute to his unparalleled contributions to American football. Pudge Heffelfinger played for Walter Camp at Yale. (United States Postal Service)
Added Goldstein, “Heffelfinger’s specialty was moving to the right, then turning in to lead interference for a Tennessean named Thomas (Bum) McClung, Yale’s star halfback.”
Yes, Heffelfinger was football’s first pulling guard. It’s still a dramatic feature of the game today.
“Playing left guard, Heffelfinger was extremely quick, powerful, intelligent and fearless.”
Listed at 6 feet, 3 inches and 205 pounds, Heffelfinger was a giant in his day. Towering over his teammates, he helped Yale dominate college football.
He was a three-time All American performer and would have earned the honor four times, notes Goldstein, but for the fact that the award wasn’t introduced until his sophomore season.
Pudge Heffelfinger starred at Yale from 1888 to 1891. Despite his nickname, he was not pudgy. But he towered over other players of the era. (Courtesy Pro Football Hall of Fame)
The 1888 Yale team, his freshman year, went 13-0 and outscored its opponents 694-0. It was the single most dominant team in more than 150 years of college football history.
“‘Pudge’ not only lettered in football, but he also lettered in baseball, rowing and track,” reports the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He was reportedly the only four-letter athlete in Yale history and left Yale recognized as football’s greatest player.
Pro football’s birth certificate
Pro football of today grew out of community and company football clubs in the “Gridiron Breadbasket” of western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
These still-amateur teams were boosted by the growing popularity of college football.
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The Allegheny Athletic Association was founded on the north side of Pittsburgh in 1890, often fielding former college stars and competing against college programs.
Pro football’s “birth certificate”: Dated Nov. 12, 1892, this Allegheny Athletic Club expense accounting sheet lists “game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500.00.” The ledger notation is the earliest evidence of a player being paid to play football. (Courtesy Pro Football Hall of Fame)
“The new club was a natural rival to the older Pittsburgh Athletic Club but labored under several disadvantages,” writes the Pro Football Researchers Association.
The “Triple A’s” sought to level the playing field the old-fashioned way: with money.
A handwritten ledger from the Allegheny Athletic Club shows an entry on Nov. 12, 1892 for “game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500.00.”
The Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, calls the document “Pro Football’s Birth Certificate.”
Pudge Heffelfinger was a Paul Bunyan-esque figure from Minnesota. He still towered over other men while being honored at an undated football game later in life. He continued to play football until his mid 60s. (Courtesy Pro Football Hall of Fame)
“Apparently, he was well worth it, as the Allegheny Athletic Club defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, 4-0,” writes the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Heffelfinger recovered a fumble and returned it [25 yards] for a touchdown for the game’s only score. Touchdowns were worth just four points in 1892.”
The Allegheny Athletic Club netted a tidy $621 profit for the day, despite devoting nearly half the team’s $1,062 in expenses to Heffelfinger. The payout was big money at the time.
“The average annual income of a Pennsylvania family in 1892 was $834,” Pudge’s great-great-nephew, Tom Heffelfinger, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2018.
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The story of Pudge Heffelfinger, the first professional football player, lived on only through word of mouth and hazy legend for nearly 75 years.
History changed in the 1960s when a mysterious man walked into the office of Pittsburgh Steelers president Dan Rooney.
“After a brief discussion, the man gave Rooney a typed, 49-page manuscript about the early history of pro football,” the Pro Football Researchers Association reported in 1989.
In this Feb. 5, 2017, file photo, New England Patriots’ Tom Brady raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the Atlanta Falcons in overtime at the NFL Super Bowl 51 football game in Houston. Pro football today is about a $19 billion-a-year business. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
“When Rooney read the paper, he realized he had a piece of research of incalculable importance. Unfortunately, by that time, the man had departed.
As best Rooney could recall, the visitor’s name was Nelson Ross. But although Rooney tried to track down Ross, the man never resurfaced.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame dug into the story, and found in its files the ledger entry from the Allegheny Athletic Association showing the details of the day it made Heffelfinger the first pro football player.
The practice of paying players was formalized in 1920 with the creation of the American Professional Football Association. Two years later, it was renamed the National Football League.
‘Forever young’
William Walter Heffelfinger died on April 2, 1954, in Blessing, Texas. He was 86 years old.
The Texas Historical Commission memorialized the football great with a signpost tablet placed outside his burial site at Hawley Cemetery in Blessing.
Wiliam Walter “Pudge” Heffelfinger, who played football into his 60s, chronicled his groundbreaking sports journey in the 1954 book, “This Was Football.” (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
It highlights his many contributions to the game, including his advent of the pulling guard and his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
Heffelinger enjoyed quite a life outside football, as politician, businessman and media mogul.
“Pudge gave forth an aura of shining light, a special, ageless glory … the living symbol of the game, indestructible and forever young.”
“He was a Minnesota delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1904 and 1908. He served as Hennepin (Minnesota) County Commissioner from 1924-48 and even ran, although unsuccessfully, for Congress in 1930,” writes the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But it was the moment in 1892, when his $500 exploits paid off in victory for the Allegheny Athletic Association, that heralded a new era in American culture.
Then-Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, number 12, jogs toward the locker room after the Packers defeated the San Francisco 49ers 30-28 at Levi’s Stadium in Sept. 2021. (Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports)
Professional football today is the great colossus of global sports.
Its popularity in America is rivaled only by college football; its profitability around the world is matched by no other sport.
For instance, the National Football League generated $17.2 billion in revenue in 2021.
Today, it’s roughly a $19 billion-a-year business.
Game-day pay has also grown dramatically in the numerous autumns since Pudge pocketed five bills.
Heffelfinger likely would have marveled at all the changes.
“I’d love to live another 86 years — just to see what’s around the corner!” he enthused in his book, “This Was Football,” published the year he died.
Pudge Heffelfinger at age 82 in Blessing, Texas, around 1950. He died at age 86 in 1954. Heffelfinger was the first athlete paid to play football. He continued to play competitive football until age 64. (Public Domain)
Grantland Rice dug deep into the well of English-language literature to find ways to pay homage to Heffelfinger.
To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here.
“To borrow a line from old Bill Shakespeare: ‘Cowards die many times before their death. The valiant never taste of death but once,” wrote Rice.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
“Pudge gave forth an aura of shining light, a special, ageless glory. He was the living symbol of the game, indestructible and forever young.”
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Long Beach will hold a pride festival this weekend after the one they originally had scheduled was canceled.
Long Beach city officials said the celebration was nixed after the nonprofit that organizes it, Long Beach Pride, failed to submit the required information for an event permit.
It was supposed to start on Friday and last through Sunday.
“Despite continued collaboration and multiple deadline notices, the City did not receive the required documentation needed to complete safety reviews, inspect critical event infrastructure, such as the stage, electrical systems and tent, and emergency exiting plans to ensure compliance with public safety standards,” the city of Long Beach said in a statement. “With event programming scheduled to begin on May 15 at 5 p.m. with Teen Pride and essential information still outstanding, there is no longer sufficient time to safely permit the festival this year.”
Officials noted that they were working to see if a “shortened event” could be held this weekend, and indeed, an agreement was reached to stage a one-day gathering on Sunday.
Billed as “Canceled? Never Heard of Her!” and emceed by comedian and drag queen Jewels, it will still bring the city’s LGBTQ community together after Sunday morning’s Long Beach Pride Parade, which was not canceled.
“Long Beach Pride weekend is a culmination of celebrations put on by our community, including our many vibrant restaurants, bars and businesses, and that will never change,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a press release issued late Saturday night. “Along with the Pride Parade, we are proud to join the party with this new event that reaffirms what this City has always stood for: that every person belongs here.”
“The festival may have been canceled, but Long Beach drag artists don’t cancel joy,” added Jewels Long Beach.
The one-day “Canceled? Never Heard of Her!” festival will take place at Bixby Park from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. A free event, it will include music by several performers and a drag show.
More information can be found here.
Los Angeles, Ca
L.A. Jewish institution among targets of foiled terrorist attack, U.S. officials say
A Jewish institution in Los Angeles was among the locations targeted in a recently foiled terrorism plot, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced this week.
The thwarted terrorist attacks were the result of the recent arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah, U.S. officials said.
“Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a commander for the terrorist organization, Kata’ib Hizballah, faces serious charges for his role in numerous attacks against U.S. interests across the globe, including his efforts to kill on U.S. soil,” Clayton said. “As alleged, for years, Al-Saadi committed himself to furthering the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC, two terrorist organizations dedicated to harming the United States and its allies.”
Al-Saadi recently attempted to carry out attacks in the U.S., officials said, including attacks at Jewish cultural places of interest in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Al-Saadi attempted to disrupt American society through intimidation and violence,” a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office reads. “… Those who engage in or support terrorism against Americans and on U.S. soil should take note: the whole of the federal government is committed to dismantling terrorist organizations and bringing their members to justice.”
In a three-month period, Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe, including bombings, arson, and assaults targeting American citizens and points of interest. Prior to his arrest, national security officials say he was planning similar attacks on U.S. soil. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that Al-Saadi “presented a serious threat to our national security.”
The European attacks included the bombing of the Bank of New York Mellon, an American bank, in Amsterdam on March 15. On April 29, two Jewish men, one of whom was a dual U.S.-British citizen, were stabbed and seriously injured in London.
In 2020, Al-Saadi took to social media, calling for others to attack and kill Americans in retribution for the deaths of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, U.S. officials said. In more recent months, Al-Saadi allegedly used social media to encourage the killing of Americans and Jews to further the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“In or about February 2026, for example, AL-SAADI posted on one of his social media accounts a message in Arabic, which read in part, ‘Do not abandon the blood of your Imam of the time, oh Shiites of Iraq. Kill everyone who supports America and Israel. Do not leave any of them remaining. Civil and military targets, as well as voices of discord, kill them everywhere.’” U.S. officials said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch confirmed that one of the U.S. targets was a Manhattan synagogue. On April 3, Al-Saadi allegedly spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer whom Al-Saadi believed could carry out attacks in the U.S. That same day, Al-Saadi allegedly texted the undercover officers photographs and maps showing the exact location of a prominent Jewish synagogue in New York City.
Officials have not said what specific locations in L.A. and Arizona were targeted by the terrorist group.
Al-Saadi now faces numerous charges for these crimes in U.S. court. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
The case is under investigation by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the NYPD, the FBI Washington Field Office, Counterterrorism Division, and more than 50 other federal, state, and local agencies. Investigators also received help from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section, the Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A man armed with a knife was shot by L.A. police officers responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call overnight, authorities said.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers with the Hollenbeck Division responded to an apartment complex in the 3000 block of Glenn Avenue in Boyle Heights at 1:45 a.m. Saturday after callers reported a male suspect was armed with a knife and had just assaulted someone in the complex.
Arriving officers found the suspect in front of the residence, but he did not comply with officers’ commands to drop the weapon. He then advanced toward the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred, LAPD confirmed.
“The suspect was struck by gunfire and remained non-compliant,” the LAPD Public Information Officer said on X early Saturday morning. “Officers deployed a 40mm foam round and ultimately took the suspect into custody.”
Video obtained by KTLA shows the man being loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital; officials said he was transported in stable condition, adding that his knife was recovered at the scene and booked as evidence.
No officers or community members were injured during the incident. The man’s name was not released.
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