Robert Wells Marshall (March 12, 1880 – August 27, 1958) was an American sportsman. He was best known for playing

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 ...

; however, Marshall also competed in

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 ...

,"Keystones Trimmed Oelwein Saturday"
''Oelwein Daily Register'', Oelwein, IA, Page 4, Column 3

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and wrestling. When Marshall played baseball for Minneapolis Central High School, he played first base for three years. Central was the champion of the Twin Cities High Schools for Marshall's junior and senior years, of 1900 and 1901."Frank Lelands' Chicago Giants Base Ball Club"
Fraternal Printing Company, 1910 When he played baseball for the University of Minnesota, he also played first base for two years, 1904 and 1905, helping the university to win the Western Conference Championship in 1905. Marshall played

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 ...

for the football team of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

from 1904 to 1906. In 1906, Marshall kicked a 48-yard

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

to beat the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

4-2 (field goals counted as four points). He was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to play football in the Western Conference (later the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

). He graduated in 1907 and played with

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

pro teams, the Deans and the Marines. From 1920 through 1924, he played 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 ...

with the

Rock Island Independents The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team, based in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1907 to 1926. The Independents were a founding National Football League franchise. They hosted what has been retrospectively designated ...

, the

Minneapolis Marines The Minneapolis Marines were an early professional football team that existed from 1905 until 1924. The team was later resurrected from 1929 to 1930 under the Minneapolis Red Jackets name. The Marines were owned locally by Minneapolitans John Dunn ...

, and the

Duluth Kelleys The Duluth Eskimos were a professional football team from Duluth, Minnesota in the National Football League (NFL). After spending most of their time as a traveling team, they withdrew from the league after the 1927 season. A distinction of the E ...

. Along with

Fritz Pollard Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 – May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the ...

, he was one of the two first African Americans to play in the NFL.

Personal life

Marshall was the son of Richard Marshall and Symanthia Gillespie Marshall. His maternal grandfather was

Ezekiel Gillespie Ezekiel Gillespie (May 31, 1818 – March 31, 1892) was an African-American civil rights and community leader who won a landmark case securing voting rights in Wisconsin. Gillespie was born a slave in Canton, Mississippi or Greene County, Tenness ...

, a former slave and civil rights pioneer. His aunt was Jessie Gillespie Herndon, the second wife of

Alonzo Herndon Alonzo Franklin Herndon (June 26, 1858 Walton County, Georgia – July 21, 1927) was an African-American entrepreneur and businessman in Atlanta, Georgia. Born into slavery, he became one of the first African American millionaires in the Unit ...

, founder and president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the most successful black-owned insurance businesses in the nation. While in high school, Marshall's mother died, and he began working as a janitor to support his three siblings.http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/59/v59i04p158-174.pdf In 1918, Marshall married Irene Knott of

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...

. The couple had four children.

Baseball career

Shortly after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in law, Marshall played third base for the Minneapolis "Lund-Lands" for one season, in 1906. He played third base for one season for Lamoure, North Dakota helping the team win third place in a league of eight teams. Outside of athletics, Marshall practiced law as an attorney in the law office of Mr. William H. H. Franklin, and later at the well known firm of Nash and Armstrong. 1910StPaulGophers

Marshall left the law offices, spending many years back on the diamonds, playing semi-pro baseball for pre- Negro National Leagues. In 1908, he played utility for the Minneapolis Keystones, then moved to first base later in the season. In 1909, he joined the St. Paul Colored Gophers. In 1910, he split the season between the

Chicago Giants The Chicago Giants were a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois which played in the Negro leagues from 1910 to 1921. History The team was founded by Frank Leland after he and his partner, Rube Foster, split up the Leland Giant ...

"Chicago Giants Will Raise Flag Sunday"
''Chicago Broad Ax'', May 14, 1910, Page 2, Columns 4 and 5 and the Colored Gophers, appearing for and managing the Colored Gophers team occasionally until at least 1916."Colored Gophers to Play Carrs in South St. Paul"
''The Appeal'', St. Paul, Minnesota, August 5, 1916, Page 3, Column 3 Marshall bought the Colored Gophers team in 1911."Bobby Marshall, one-time football player..."
''St. Paul Appeal'', St. Paul, Minnesota, Saturday, April 15, 1911, Page 3, Column 5 In a 1916 game, Marshall brought in "Cannonball Jackson" a pitcher acquired from

J. L. Wilkinson J Leslie Wilkinson (May 14, 1878 – August 21, 1964) was an American sports executive who founded the All Nations baseball club in 1912, and the Negro league baseball team Kansas City Monarchs in 1920. Early life Born in Algona, Iowa, Wilkinso ...

All Nations All Nations was a Barnstorm (athletics), barnstorming professional baseball team that toured the Midwest from 1912 to 1918, and again in 1920 and 1921, and from 1923 to 1925. It derived its name from the fact that its team included players of seve ...

team. Marshall would later appear in games with John Donaldson and the

team in 1923.

Later life and death

At the end of the 1911 season, Marshall received an appointment in the Minnesota state grain department, where he worked for the next 39 years."Mr. 'Bobby' Marshall has received an appointment..."
''St. Paul Appeal'', St. Paul, Minnesota, Saturday, September 2, 1911, Page 3, Column 6 For years, Marshall coached youngsters in football and boxing in Minneapolis. At his retirement from his government job in 1950, he was honored with a testimonial dinner, whose attendees included Minnesota Governor

Luther Youngdahl Luther Wallace Youngdahl (May 29, 1896 – June 21, 1978) was an American judge and politician who served as the 27th governor of Minnesota and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Edu ...

and legendary Gophers football coach

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was th ...

. Marshall died of Alzheimer's disease in 1958. 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 1971.

References

External links

* *Baseball statistics and player information fro
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball Stats
an
Seamheads

"A century ago, Bobby Marshall made history in NFL's first game, Bobby Marshall, a 40-year-old Black lawyer from Minneapolis, played in the NFL's first game," by Mark Craig, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct. 4, 2020
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Bobby 1880 births 1958 deaths American football ends Baseball first basemen All Nations players Duluth Kelleys players Minneapolis Marines players Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball players Minneapolis Keystones players Rock Island Independents players St. Paul Colored Gophers players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Players of American football from Milwaukee Players of American football from Minneapolis Baseball players from Milwaukee Baseball players from Minneapolis African-American players of American football African-American baseball managers Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Janitors Central High School (Minneapolis, Minnesota) alumni Neurological disease deaths in Minnesota 20th-century African-American people

Personal life

Baseball career

Later life and death

See also

References

External links