Harold Brewer "Cookie" Cunningham (February 4, 1905 – November 3, 1995) was an American 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,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player, and basketball coach. A two-sport athlete at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, he started playing both football and basketball on the professional level in 1926. He started his professional football career by playing end for the Cleveland Panthers of the first American Football League. After the folding of the AFL, he played the same position for the

Cleveland Bulldogs The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However, after team owner S ...

(1927),

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

(1929), and the

Staten Island Stapletons The Staten Island Stapletons also known as the Staten Island Stapes were a professional American football team founded in 1915 that played in the National Football League from 1929 to 1932. The team was based in the Stapleton section of State ...

(1931) of 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 ...

. In the same five-year span, Cunningham also played center for the

Cleveland Rosenblums The Cleveland Rosenblums (also known as the ''Rosies'') were an American basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio that was one of the original members of the American Basketball League. The Rosenblums played in the league between 1925–1930, winn ...

and the Toledo Red Man Tobaccos ( American Basketball League).

Coaching career

Subsequently, he became a

coach, first on the collegiate level before becoming a player-coach in the National Basketball League ( Columbus Athletic Supply in 1937–38). He subsequently returned to the college ranks, coaching for

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

(1939–1942) and the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

(1946–1948).

References

External links

* 1905 births 1995 deaths American football ends American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Ohio Basketball players from Ohio Centers (basketball) Chicago Bears players Cleveland Bulldogs players Cleveland Panthers players Cleveland Rosenblums players Columbus Athletic Supply coaches Columbus Athletic Supply players North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's basketball coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football players Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball players People from Mount Vernon, Ohio Players of American football from Ohio Player-coaches Staten Island Stapletons players Washington and Lee Generals men's basketball coaches {{1900s-US-basketball-bio-stub