Julius "Baldy" Wittmann 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 in the
Ohio League for the
Massillon Tigers, as well as the Tigers 1907 spin-off team the "All-Massillions". When the Tigers were established in 1903, Wittmann was picked to start on the team at
end, despite never playing the game before. Prior to his involvement with the Tigers, Wittman was the proprietor of a local
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
store and a spare-time police officer. His slogan for the cigar store was "our prices and the Massillon Tigers can't be beat".
Wittmann was a natural leader and an athlete who learned quickly. As a result, he was elected captain of the team during the 1903 season. During a December 5, 1903 game against the
Akron East Ends, Wittman was reportedly assaulted by a gang of five men, until several Massillon fans came to his aid. During the 1904 season he was moved to the
tackle position. In 1905, while Wittmann kept his title as team captain,
Clark Schrontz
Clark A. Schrontz was a professional American football player. In 1902 he won a championship in the first National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Stars. A year later he was a member of the Franklin Athletic Club football team that was c ...
was named as the team's "field captain".
In 1907, he was a member of the "All-Massillons". Wittmann and ex-Tiger,
Frank Bast, were in the line-up for a 1911 version of the Massillon Tigers.
References
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittman, Baldy
1871 births
Massillon Tigers players
All-Massillons players
Year of death missing