Alfred Henry "Big Dutch" Bergman (September 27, 1889 – June 20, 1961) was an American second baseman who played for 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 ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He was also known for being a multi-sport college athlete at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Early life and education

"Big Dutch" Bergman was born on September 27, 1889, in

Peru, Indiana Peru is a city in, and the county seat of, Miami County, Indiana, Miami County, Indiana, United States. It is north of Indianapolis. The population was 11,417 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous city in Miami County. Peru is located ...

, and went on to attend the

. His brother

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...

, known as "Little Dutch" also attended Notre Dame, and went on to become head coach of the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. His youngest brother Joe Bergman (Dutch the III) was a decorated athlete at Notre Dame and played baseball, track and football. Bergman is the only athlete in the history of athletics at the University of Notre Dame to earn a total of eleven varsity letters, and he was also the only athlete to earn four letters twice in a single year. He played

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 ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and was a team captain on the track team. As the

kickoff returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

for the football team in 1911, Bergman set a presently unbreakable record with a 105-yard return against Loyola; at the time the fields were 110 yards long. Three years later, Bergman became the starting

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for

Jesse Harper Jesse Clair Harper (December 10, 1883 – July 31, 1961) was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Alma College (1906–1907), Wabash College (1909–1912), an ...

's 1914 team, which finished the season with six wins and two losses. During the 1914 season, Bergman was named All-American quarterback.

Professional baseball career

After graduation, Bergman played baseball for the Peru Greys, owned by his father. He then played

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

for one season with the

. He signed with the Indians in late August, and made his

debut on August 29, 1916, and played second base for the team for eight games. A month later, he returned to his home in Indiana, two weeks after playing his final game on September 12. In eight games, Bergman had three

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in 14

at-bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a bat ...

s, as well as a

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

War service

In 1917, Bergman enrolled in officers' training camp and was commissioned as a captain for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In August 1917, he received a contract offer to finish out the season with the

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 ...

, but declined the offer since he was about to report to

Fort Benjamin Harrison Fort Benjamin Harrison was a U.S. Army post located in suburban Lawrence Township, Marion County, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis, between 1906 and 1991. It is named for the 23rd United States president, Benjamin Harrison. History In 1901, ...

for training. Bergman left the service in 1919 and became a plant manager at the American Stationery company in Peru, Indiana.

Personal life and death

In 1918, Bergman married Elizabeth Horn. They had two sons. He died in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, on June 20, 1961.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergman, Alfred 1889 births 1961 deaths American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's track and field athletes Basketball players from Indiana Major League Baseball second basemen Cleveland Indians players American men's basketball players