John Albert "Burt" Aull (January 29, 1871 - February 1, 1947) was an early

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 with the

Pittsburgh Athletic Club The Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC) was one of the earliest professional ice hockey teams. It was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from around 1895 until 1904 and again from 1907 to 1909. The team was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey Le ...

, prior to the club's hiring of professional football players. Aull was born to William Ferris and Anna (Martin) Aull in 1871 in Pittsburgh. He was the brother of the team's captain and

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 ...

Charley Aull Charles Elmer Aull (September 5, 1869 – June 28, 1958) was an early professional football player. He played professionally for the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. He also played college football from 1889 until 1891 for the Penn State Nittany Lions. H ...

. During a game held on November 21, 1892, against Pittsburgh's rival, the

Allegheny Athletic Association The Allegheny Athletic Association was an athletic club that fielded the first ever professional American football player and later the first fully professional football team. The organization was founded in 1890 as a regional athletic club in A ...

, Burt was knocked out of the game in the first half with a severely bruised head. Burt's brother, Charley, was also reportedly injured when he was crushed beneath a pile of several Allegheny players. As a result Charley's back was so wrenched, he had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. The game was of historical significance since it was the first known game to feature a professional player,

Pudge Heffelfinger William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to pl ...

, who was paid $500 by Allegheny to play in the game. Aull died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

at Middleton, Ohio in 1947, aged 76.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aull, Burt Players of American football from Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Athletic Club (football) players 19th-century players of American football 1871 births 1947 deaths