Emile Frederick Fritz Jr. (February 1920 – September 14, 2015) was an American
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. Fritz was selected in the thirteenth round of the
1947 NFL Draft
The 1947 National Football League Draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York.
The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago B ...
.
In the late 1930s, Fritz attended
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
, where he played on the football team as a
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
.
A World War II veteran, he enlisted in the Army Air Force shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and served as a B-17 mechanic. He served overseas in the United States military before enrolling again in college, this time at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
. At Maryland in 1945, Fritz played under head coach
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of t ...
, who had been an assistant coach for Fritz at Vanderbilt before the war.
In 1946, the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
named Fritz an honorable mention All-American.
Fritz was selected in the thirteenth round of the
1947 NFL Draft
The 1947 National Football League Draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York.
The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago B ...
(115th overall) by the
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 ...
.Chicago Bears Draft History , Database Football, retrieved 28 December 2008.Terps in the Pros (PDF), ''2000 Maryland Football Media Guide'', University of Maryland Terrapins official website, 2000, retrieved 22 December 2008.
At Maryland, Fritz was a member of the Delta Phi chapter of the
Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate Fraternities and sororities in North America, college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlva ...
fraternity.
Fritz died on September 14, 2015, at the age of 95, in