Charles Francis "Chile" Walsh (February 4, 1903 – September 4, 1971) 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 ...

player, coach, and executive. He 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 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 ...

from 1925 to 1927 and served as the head football coach at

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

from 1930 to 1933, compiling record of 22–9–2. Walsh was a head coach 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

St. Louis Gunners The St. Louis Gunners were an independent professional football team based in St. Louis, Missouri, that played the last three games of the 1934 National Football League season, replacing the Cincinnati Reds on the league schedule after the Reds' ...

in 1934, tallying a mark of 1–2. He was also an assistant coach for the

Cleveland Rams The Cleveland Rams were a professional American football team that played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945. The Rams competed in the second American Football League (AFL) for the 1936 season and the National Football League (NFL) from 1937 to 194 ...

in 1942 and was named the team's head coach in 1943, however the team suspended operations that season due to manning shortages brought on by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1944, Walsh became the team's general manager and named

Aldo Donelli Aldo Teo "Buff" Donelli (July 22, 1907 – August 9, 1994) was an American football player and coach, association football, soccer player, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Duquesne University from 193 ...

as head coach. However, by 1945 Donelli had joined the military, and Walsh replaced him with his older brother,

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, as the team's new head coach. The Rams won the NFL Championship in 1945. Just before the

1945 NFL Championship Game The 1945 NFL Championship Game was the 13th National Football League (NFL) championship game. Held on December 16, the Cleveland Rams defeated the Washington Redskins 15–14 at Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. This was the last game befo ...

against 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 ...

, Walsh paid $7,200 for 9,000 bales of hay to prevent the field at

Cleveland Stadium Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium, Lakefront Stadium or Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball an ...

from freezing over. A year later the team relocated to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Walsh signed Kenny Washington, one of the first

African-Americans 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 ensl ...

to play in the National Football League after World War II.

Head coaching record

College

References

Additional sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Chile 1903 births 1971 deaths American football ends Cleveland Rams executives Los Angeles Rams executives Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Saint Louis Billikens athletic directors Saint Louis Billikens football coaches St. Louis Gunners coaches National Football League general managers Sportspeople from Des Moines, Iowa Players of American football from Des Moines, Iowa