James Edward Blair (August 5, 1871 – March 8, 1913) 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 and coach and physician. He was early professional football player with the
Latrobe Athletic Association
The Latrobe Athletic Association was a professional football team located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 1895 until 1909. A member of the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit, the team is best known for being the first f ...
. He later relocated to
Burlington, New Jersey where he took a prominent part in the city council for a time and was a surgeon for the Third Battalion of the
New Jersey National Guard
The New Jersey Army National Guard consists of more than 6,000 Citizen-Soldiers. The New Jersey Army National Guard is currently engaged in multiple worldwide and homeland missions. Units have deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Germ ...
. He was a charter member of the Burlington
Elks Lodge
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City.
History
The Elks began in 1868 as a so ...
and was a
thirty-second degree Mason. He also was affiliated with the Sons of Veterans.
Football
Blair began his career with the Latrobe A. A. in 1895 as an amateur player. However, his major claim to fame came when a scheduling conflict led to him being replaced by
John Brallier
John Kinport "Sal" Brallier (December 12, 1876 – September 17, 1960) was one of the first professional American football players. He was nationally acknowledged as the first openly paid professional football player when he was given $10 to play f ...
, who became the first openly professional football player.
In 1895 Blair found himself in a scheduling conflict. Edward, who also played
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
in nearby
Greensburg, discovered it that the team's first football game against the
Jeannette Athletic Association conflicted with a prior baseball commitment. Latrobe manager
David Berry, who was now seeking a replacement for Blair, had heard of Brallier's performance as the
Indiana Normal quarterback and signed him to play in the game for $10 plus expenses.
Blair served as the head football coach at
Sewanee: The University of the South in 1896.
College
Blair attended
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College is a private Benedictine college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, it is operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine monastery in the ...
, located in
Latrobe. He graduated from that school in 1892. Afterwards he attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
where he played
college football and
college baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...
. During his time at Penn, Blair played
halfback on the football team and was a three year varsity player on the baseball team.
Family and death
Blair was born in 1871 to Mr. and Mrs. John C. Blair, both of whom outlived him. He had two brothers, both of whom he outlived: Charles Richard Blair and
Paul Blair, who also played on the Latrobe team. Blair died from a heart ailment, on March 8, 1913, at Medico-Chi Hospital in Philadelphia. He had a wife and a son, who was seven at the time of his death.
Head coaching record
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Eddie
1871 births
1913 deaths
19th-century players of American football
19th-century baseball players
19th-century American physicians
20th-century American physicians
American football halfbacks
American football quarterbacks
American Freemasons
Latrobe Athletic Association players
Penn Quakers baseball players
Penn Quakers football players
Sewanee Tigers football coaches
Saint Vincent College alumni
People from Burlington, New Jersey
People from Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania
Players of American football from Pennsylvania
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
New Jersey city council members
Physicians from Philadelphia
Physicians from New Jersey