George Barney Poole (October 29, 1923 – April 12, 2005) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

New York Yanks The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. Season by season overview 1949 The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's manage ...

, the

Dallas Texans Dallas Texans may refer to: American football *Dallas Texans (NFL), 1952 team in the National Football League *Dallas Texans (AFL), 1960–1962 team that is now the Kansas City Chiefs * Dallas Texans (arena), 1990–1993 Arena Football League team ...

, the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

, and the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. Poole also played football in the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

. Poole played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

, where he was an

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n as an

offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

and

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in 1974. Barney Poole was preceded in the NFL by two brothers, Jim "Buster" Poole and

Ray Poole Ray Smith Poole (April 15, 1921 – April 2, 2008) was an American tight end, offensive and defensive end, defensive end (American football), end in the National Football League who played for the New York Giants from 1947 to 1952. Born in Glos ...

, both of whom had long professional football careers. Barney Poole was one of the few players who played college football for more than four years, because his two years with the national championship

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

team were not counted against his collegiate eligibility. NFL Hall of Famer Art Donovan shared this anecdote about Poole, his teammate with the 1953 Colts: "Early in my career—the Colts' first year back in Baltimore, as a matter of fact—I played with a defensive lineman named Barney Poole. He was a tough guy, but by 1953 he was pretty much over the hill. And he was doing anything he could to hang on. In one game he tore up his hand. He caught his fingers in someone's face mask and it nearly yanked a couple of the digits out. That hand was a mess. This happened sometime early in the second quarter, and Barney was led off the field and into the locker room and soon thereafter an ambulance carried him off to Union Memorial. He got his fingers stitched up. I swear to God, he got out on Thirty-third Street and hitchhiked right back up to Memorial Stadium. Damned if he didn't return in time to play the fourth quarter. And he did play, too, with a big wrapping on those twisted and mangled fingers. He was one tough player, and the Colts rewarded him the following season by cutting his ass."

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*
ESPN obituary
1923 births 2005 deaths People from Gloster, Mississippi Players of American football from Mississippi American football ends American football defensive ends Ole Miss Rebels football players North Carolina Tar Heels football players Army Black Knights football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees New York Yankees (AAFC) players New York Yanks players Dallas Texans (NFL) players Baltimore Colts players New York Giants players Coaches of American football from Mississippi Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches {{defensive-lineman-1920s-stub

See also

References

External links