Edwin Vinson Goddard (October 28, 1914 – July 20, 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 wi ...

player. Goddard played college football at the

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 ...

and halfback positions for

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

. Goddard also served as a punter for Washington State. He was named a first-team All-American quarterback three straight years from 1934–1937 and was a consensus All-American quarterback in 1935 and 1936. He was the second player selected in the

1937 NFL Draft The 1937 National Football League Draft was the second draft held by the National Football League (NFL). The draft took place December 12, 1936, at the Hotel Lincoln in New York City. The draft consisted of 10 rounds, with 100 player selections ...

and played two years of professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1937) and

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 19 ...

(1937–1938). Goddard was known as the "Escondido Express," as he grew up in

Escondido, California Escondido is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Located in the North County region, it was incorporated in 1888, and is one of the oldest cities in San Diego County. It has a population of 151,038 as of the 2020 census. Et ...

. He reportedly received the nickname from a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' reporter who saw him running and passing against USC, helping Washington State win against USC for the first time in three years. During

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 opposing ...

, Goddard served in the military. He and his wife, Ellen Goddard, had two children. Goddard died of cancer at his home in July 1992 at age 77.

References

1914 births 1992 deaths American football quarterbacks Washington State Cougars football players Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) players Cleveland Rams players American military personnel of World War II Sportspeople from Escondido, California Players of American football from San Diego Deaths from cancer in California {{quarterback-1910s-stub