Alvin Jay Jolley (September 29, 1899 – August 26, 1948) was a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach. He played for the Cleveland Tigers,

Akron Pros The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter mem ...

Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangl ...

Oorang Indians The Oorang Indians () were a traveling team in the National Football League from LaRue, Ohio (near Marion). The franchise was a novelty team put together by Walter Lingo to market his Oorang dog kennels. All of the Indians players were Native Am ...

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

and the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

. He was a coach for the Bisons and the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. He also played for the

Ironton Tanks The Ironton Tanks were a semi-professional football team organized in 1919 in Ironton, Ohio. Their historical marker gives the story of the Tanks origin: "Semi-professional football began in Ironton in 1893 with a team known as the Irontonians. ...

of 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 pr ...

. Jolley was also a Native American. He was a member of the

Wyandotte Nation The Wyandotte Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe in northeastern Oklahoma. They are descendants of the Wendat Confederacy and Native Americans with territory near Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Under pressure from Haudenosaun ...

. This made him eligible to join the NFL's Oorang Indians. The Indians were a team based in

LaRue, Ohio LaRue is a village in Marion County, Ohio, United States. The population was 747 at the 2010 census. The village is served by Elgin Local School District. LaRue has a public library, a branch of Marion Public Library. Geography LaRue is located ...

, composed only of Native Americans, and coached by

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

Coaching

In 1929 Jolley coached the Bisons in a season that saw the team winning just one game. Afterwards the team finally folded for good, making Jolley the franchise's last coach. Jolley coached the Dodgers in the first ever NFL night game held on Wednesday September 24, 1930, in

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...

. The Dodgers lost game 12-0 to the

Portsmouth Spartans The professional American football team now known as the Detroit Lions previously played in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans, from its founding in 1928 to its relocation to Detroit in 1934. Originally drawing players from defunct indepe ...

, the forerunners to the modern day

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

Death

Monday, October 18, 1948, the Ironton Tanks had a reunion. At that reunion Eric Shattuck, a former Tank player, read the list of deceased Tanks as the crowd. Jolley was on the list. A date of death for Jolley has been found. According to the Find A Grave website and his Ohio death certificate, the early football star died from carcinoma on August 26, 1948, in Marietta, Ohio. He was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Head coaching record

References

Additional sources

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Uniform Numbers of the NFL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolley, Al 1899 births 1948 deaths American football tackles Akron Pros players Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) players Buffalo Bisons (NFL) coaches Buffalo Bisons (NFL) players Cincinnati Reds (NFL) coaches Cincinnati Reds (NFL) players Cleveland Indians (NFL 1931) players Cleveland Tigers (NFL) players Dayton Triangles players Oorang Indians players Kansas State Wildcats football players Tulsa Golden Hurricane football players People from Pottawatomie County, Kansas Players of American football from Kansas Native American sportspeople