William Ernest Pinckert (May 1, 1907 – August 30, 1977) 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 ...

halfback. He 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 ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC) under head coach Howard Jones. Pinckert played professionally in 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) from 1932 to 1940 with the Boston Braves/Redskins, who then moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Pinckert was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1957.

Early life

A younger brother of astrologer

Jeane Dixon Jeane Dixon (January 5, 1904 – January 25, 1997) was one of the best-known American psychics and astrologers of the twentieth century, owing to her prediction of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, her syndicated newspaper astrolo ...

, Pinckert and his nine siblings were the children of Richard Franz Pinckert, a native of

Gräfenhainichen is a town in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Geography The town was the seat of the offices of the administrative community (''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'') of Tor zur Dübener Heide until it was disbanded in January 2011. It lies ...

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

, and his wife, Luise Johanne Emma ( Graefe), both Roman Catholics.

College career

Pinckert was consensus selection on the 1930 College Football All-America Team.

Tommy Trojan Tommy Trojan, officially known as the Trojan Shrine, is one of the most recognizable figures of school pride at the University of Southern California. The life-size bronze statue of a Trojan warrior stands in the center of campus and serves as a p ...

, officially known as the Trojan Shrine was based on a variety of USC football players, including

Russ Saunders Stebbell Russell "Russ" Saunders (January 1, 1906 - April 29, 1987) was an American football fullback in the National Football League (NFL). He played with the Green Bay Packers during the 1931 NFL season. He was an All-American at USC and was ...

and Pinckert. The lower half in particular is based on Ernie Pinckert.

Professional career

Pinckert played in the NFL between 1932 and 1940 for the Boston Braves and the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

Death

Pinckert died on August 30, 1977, at his home in the

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

References

External links

* * * 1907 births 1977 deaths American football halfbacks Boston Braves (NFL) players Boston Redskins players USC Trojans football players Washington Redskins players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Medford, Wisconsin Sportspeople from San Bernardino, California Players of American football from California American people of German descent Catholics from California Catholics from Wisconsin {{runningback-1900s-stub