Dan Policowski was an early 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 for the Massillon Tigers from 1904 to 1906. Originally from

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

, which was the home of the Tigers', rival the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Leag ...

, Policowski played end under the alias Dan Riley. He was also known as "Bullet Riley".

Forward pass

On October 25, 1906, Policowski made professional football history when he caught a short pass from Massillon

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 ...

Peggy Parratt George Watson "Peggy" Parratt (March 21, 1883 – January 3, 1959) was a professional football player who played in the "Ohio League" prior to it becoming a part of the National Football League. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Parratt played quarterb ...

. This was the first recorded use of the

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

in professional football game. However, it is unknown if it was truly the first use of the pass in a professional game, since Parratt may have used it even earlier. Eddie Wood was erroneously credited for catching the first forward pass in pro football by

Harry March Harry Addison March (December 11, 1875 – June 10, 1940) was an early football historian and promoter, as well as a medical doctor. He also helped organize the National Football League and well as the second American Football League. March ...

in his book '' Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs''. During the second game of the 1906 Ohio League championship, which would later result in a betting scandal on November 24, 1906, Wood reportedly caught a couple of the new forward passes. March somehow stated that those catches in a championship game, at the end of the season, were very first catches in professional football. It was later discovered that Parratt threw an earlier recorded pass to Policowski on October 25, for professional football's first forward pass. A second recorded pass was thrown to

Clark Schrontz Clark A. Schrontz was a professional American football player. In 1902 he won a championship in the first National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Stars. A year later he was a member of the Franklin Athletic Club football team that was c ...

two days later.

After Massillon

The Tigers and Bulldogs left football in 1906 after the events

Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

. In 1907 he played for the "All-Massillon" team, which featured most of Tigers line-up. In 1910, Policowski played for the Shelby Tigers, while in 1911, he played for the Shelby Blues. A year later Policowski played for the Toledo Overlands. During a game against the

Detroit Wolverines The Detroit Wolverines were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team that played in the National League from 1881 to 1888 in the city of Detroit, Michigan. In total, they won 426 games and lost 437, taking their lone pennant (and winning the pre ...

, he grabbed a fumble at Detroit's three yard line and ran it in for a touchdown.

References

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Policowski, Dan Massillon Tigers players Shelby Blues players Shelby Tigers players Players of American football from Ohio All-Massillons players