Donald Nesbit Ettinger (November 20, 1921 – February 13, 1992) 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. He was born in

Independence, Missouri Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro ...

. Nicknamed "Red Dog", Ettinger 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 ...

for the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

and later 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 ...

(NFL)'s

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. ...

. He finished his career in

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

, where he was a four-time All-Star and won the

40th Grey Cup The 40th Grey Cup game was the Canadian Football Championship held on 29 November 1952. The Toronto Argonauts defeated the Edmonton Eskimos 21–11 at Toronto's Varsity Stadium. Game highlights An audience of 27 391 watched as acting Can ...

. Ettinger is credited for inventing the

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

References

1921 births 1992 deaths Sportspeople from Independence, Missouri Players of American football from Missouri American football linebackers Kansas Jayhawks football players University of Kansas alumni Saskatchewan Roughriders players Toronto Argonauts players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players New York Giants players Houston Oilers coaches Canadian football linebackers American players of Canadian football {{linebacker-1920s-stub